Fig 1.
BEEtag code tructure and generation.
(A) Basic tag design (see text for details). (B) A bumblebee worker (Bombus impatiens) outfitted with a BEEtag and encountered opportunistically in the natural environment. (C) Cockroaches (Blaberus discoidalis) outfitted with BEEtags. (D). Schematic representation of the process for generating a list of unique, usable BEEtags.
Fig 2.
Schematic representation of the algorithm for identify unique BEEtags from an image.
Green circles show identified corners of the white quadrangle, and red dots show points where separate pixel values were measured. See text for details.
Fig 3.
Performance of the BEEtag tracking system in a sample video (A) in response to variation in resolution (B), gaussian noise (C), and binary threshold value (D). See text for details. Transparent blue lines show data from a single video frame (N = 277 in B and N = 100 in C-D), and thickened red lines show the mean across all frames.
Fig 4.
Validation of the BEEtag system in bumblebees (Bombus impatiens).
(A-E, G-I) Spatial position over time for 8 individual bees, and (F) for all identified bees at the same time. Colors show the tracks of individual bees, and lines connect points where bees were identified in subsequent frames. (J) A sample raw image and (K-L) inlays demonstrating the complex background in the bumblebee nest. (M) Portion of tags identified vs. threshold value for individual pictures (blue lines) and averaged across all pictures (red line).