We investigated the prevalence of infestation by the bumblebee tracheal mite, Locustacarus buchneri (Acari: Podapolipidae), in four commercial colonies of Bombus terrestris (Hymenoptera: Apidae). All the foundresses, 91.8Ϯ5.67% (meanϮSE) of worker bees, 73.9Ϯ6.85% of males, and 77.4Ϯ21.5% of new queens had the mite in their abdominal air sacs. The mean number of eggs, adult females, and mobile mites infesting a single bumblebee worker were 76.9Ϯ76.8 (range: 4-301, nϭ40), 3.78Ϯ3.45 (1-11, 40), and 3.45Ϯ2.98 (1-11, 20), respectively. From these values, we calculated the number of eggs per adult mite female to be 23.9Ϯ21.7 (range: 4-126, nϭ40). As a single worker bee had about 76 mites in her abdominal air sacs and approximately 90% of the bees in a colony of about 160 bees were infested by the mite, an infested B. terrestris colony has the potential to produce more than 10,000 L. buchneri individuals during colony development.

The endoparasitic mite Locustacarus buchneri Stammer has been found in commercial bumblebees (Bombus terrestris) and in Japanese native bumblebees. In an infested colony of B. terrestris reared in the laboratory, the mites moved from adult bees to 3rd or 4th instar larvae, where they waited for bees' pupation. We dissected the bee workers that emerged, and counted the numbers of eggs, mobile forms (larviform females and males), and adult females of the mite in the tracheae of the bees. Our results allowed us to roughly estimate that the developmental period from egg to mobile phase of the mites was about 2 weeks (4 weeks after bee emergence). We also revealed that the number of mites in the bee could be positively associated with the bee's age after emergence.

Food products are usually difficult to handle for robots because of their large variations in shape, size, softness, and surface conditions. It is ideal to use one robotic gripper to handle as many food products as possible. In this study, a scooping-binding robotic gripper is proposed to achieve this goal. The gripper was constructed using a pneumatic parallel actuator and two identical scooping-binding mechanisms. The mechanism consists of a thin scooping plate and multiple rubber strings for binding. When grasping an object, the mechanisms actively makes contact with the environment for scooping, and the object weight is mainly supported by the scooping plate. The binding strings are responsible for stabilizing the grasping by wrapping around the object. Therefore, the gripper can perform high-speed pick-and-place operations. Contact analysis was conducted using a simple beam model and a finite element model that were experimentally validated. Tension property of the binding string was characterized and an analytical model was established to predict binding force based on object geometry and binding displacement. Finally, handling tests on 20 food items, including products with thin profiles and slippery surfaces, were performed. The scooping-binding gripper succeeded in handling all items with a takt time of approximately 4 s. The gripper showed potential for actual applications in the food industry.

In order to search for the α-condensed state in 20 Ne, we measured the inelastic α scattering on 20 Ne at 0 degrees and subsequent particle decays in coincidence. We obtained the excitation energy spectra by gating on the αand proton-decay channel. In the α-decay events, several structures are observed above the 5α-decay threshold. In addition, we selected the α-decay events to the 0 + 6 state in 16 O, which is the candidate for the 4α-condensed state in 16 O. Further analysis is still going on.