Journal article
Experimental analysis of worker division of labor in bumblebee nest thermoregulation (Bombus huntii, Hymenoptera: Apidae)
Behavioral ecology and sociobiology, v 61(5), pp 783-792
Mar 2007
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Bumblebee colonies experience daily and seasonal fluctuations in ambient temperature, but proper brood development requires a stable nest temperature. This study examined how adaptive colony responses to changing ambient temperature are achieved through the in-nest workers’ behavioral plasticity. We studied three Bombus huntii colonies in the laboratory. In the first experiment, we manipulated ambient temperature and recorded brood cell incubation and wing fanning by individually marked, known-age bees. The colonies maintained their nests closer to appropriate brood development temperatures (28 to 32°C) when exposed to a range of ambient temperatures from 10.3 to 38.6°C. Incubation activity was greater in cooler treatment conditions, whereas in the highest temperature treatment, some bees fanned and others moved off the brood. As the ambient temperature dropped, workers increased the duration of their incubating bouts, but, except at the highest temperature, the number of workers that incubated did not differ significantly among treatments. A subset of the bees incubated significantly more than their nest mates, some of which never incubated. Worker body size, but not age, was a good predictor of incubation rates, and smaller bees incubated at higher rates. In the second experiment, we removed the most actively incubating workers. Immediately after removals, the total colony incubation effort was lower than pre-removal levels, but incubation effort rebounded toward pre-removal levels after 24 h. The increased thermoregulatory demand after removals was met primarily by bees increasing their rates of incubation rather than by bees switching from a different task to incubation. We conclude that some B. huntii workers specialize on nest thermoregulation, and that changes in work rates are more important than task switching in meeting thermal challenges.
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Details
- Title
- Experimental analysis of worker division of labor in bumblebee nest thermoregulation (Bombus huntii, Hymenoptera: Apidae)
- Creators
- Kathryn Gardner - Department of Entomology, Comstock Hall Cornell University Ithaca NY 14853-2601 USARobin Foster - Department of Psychology University of Puget Sound 1500 North Warner CMB no. 1046 Tacoma WA 98416-1046 USASean O’Donnell - Department of Psychology University of Washington Box 351525 Seattle WA 98195 USA
- Publication Details
- Behavioral ecology and sociobiology, v 61(5), pp 783-792
- Publisher
- Springer-Verlag; Berlin/Heidelberg
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Biodiversity, Earth, and Environmental Science (BEES)
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000244684500014
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-33847618412
- Other Identifier
- 991014878318404721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Behavioral Sciences
- Ecology
- Zoology