Characterization of “pollen balls” in commercial populations of the alfalfa leafcutting bee, <i>Megachile rotundata</i> in Canada
Bibliographic record
Abstract
SummaryTo determine the quality of their leafcutting bees (Megachile rotundata), Canadian producers submit samples of loose cells to the Canadian Alfalfa Leafcutter Bee Cocoon Testing Centre (CCTC), Brooks, Alberta, for x-ray analysis. As part of the x-ray analysis report, the CCTC uses the category “pollen balls” to describe bee cells that have been provisioned with nectar and pollen, but in which the presence of larval development is not apparent. We determined the nature of this pollen ball category by comparing results obtained through x-ray analysis to those determined by visual examination of cut-open cells. A total of 35,241 cells were cut open and characterized as either: mouldy; broodless dry or wet provisions; collapsed egg; dead larvae (Instar 1, 2, 3 or 4); live prepupa; parasite; predator; or chalkbrood. Accuracy analysis indicated that the best agreement between the estimates of percent pollen balls obtained visually and using the x-ray method, occurred when wet and dry provision, collapsed egg, dead first or second larvae and all cell types characterized as mouldy were included in the visual categories used to define pollen balls. Overall, dry provisions constituted the highest proportion of pollen balls, followed by mouldy cells, collapsed eggs, wet provisions and finally dead first and second instar larvae. All correlation analyses between the categories making up pollen balls and the total number of pollen balls indicated that none of the single categories is consistently responsible for the overall increase in the percentage of pollen balls.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.002 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".