Bumble bee nest thermoregulation : a field study

Gradišek, Anton (author), Bizjak, Jani (author), Popovski, Aleksej (author), Grad, Janez (author)

Careful control of brood temperature is important for successful colony development in social insects. Six bumble bee colonies of six common Central European species (B. hypnorum, B. hortorum, B. argillaceus, B. pascuorum, B. humilis, B. sylvarum) were continuously monitored for several weeks. We recorded the brood temperature as well as the air temperature in the nest and outside once per minute using a homemade electronic setup. Two colonies succeeded in producing new queens and males during the measurement period while the other four colonies were attacked by parasites at some point during the equilibrium stage. We discuss the nest thermoregulation in view of species and the number of workers in the colony. The results show that the strongest colonies were able to maintain very stable brood temperature over longer periods (standard deviations below 0.5 °C), which is in agreement with previous studies. Colonies with 25 or more workers typically kept the standard deviation below 1 °C. There are two main contributions to the paper. First, we discuss the applicability of a multi-sensor monitoring setup for an outdoor study. Second, due to fast temperature sampling, we were able to observe different thermoregulation strategies that colonies may apply, including keeping the temperature above 31 °C at night and letting it rise during the day in B. argillaceus and short heating cycles in B. sylvarum.

• Language: English
• Keywords: bumble bees, thermoregulation, nest climate, wild bees
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: FU - Faculty of Administration
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2023
• Number of pages: Str. 634-642
• Numbering: Vol. 62, no. 3
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-146036
• UDC: 638
• ISSN on article: 2078-6913
• DOI: 10.1080/00218839.2022.2164651
• COBISS.SI-ID: 137309187
• Publication date in RUL: 18.05.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Journal of apicultural research
• Shortened title: J. apic. res.
• Publisher: International Bee Research Association, Taylor & Francis
• ISSN: 2078-6913
• COBISS.SI-ID: 520749337

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/
• Description: The most restrictive Creative Commons license. This only allows people to download and share the work for no commercial gain and for no other purposes.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: čmrlji, termoregulacija, temperatura v gnezdu, divje čebele

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P1-0125
• Name: Magnetna resonanca in dielektrična spektroskopija pametnih novih materialov

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P2-0209
• Name: Umetna inteligenca in inteligentni sistemi