NDLI: Experimental analysis of worker division of labor in bumblebee nest thermoregulation (Bombus huntii, Hymenoptera: Apidae)

Content Provider	Springer Nature Link
Author	Gardner, Kathryn E. Foster, Robin L. O’Donnell, Sean
Copyright Year	2006
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.
Starting Page	783
Ending Page	792
Page Count	10
File Format	PDF
ISSN	03405443
Journal	Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology
Volume Number	61
Issue Number	5
e-ISSN	14320762
Language	English
Publisher	Springer-Verlag
Publisher Date	2006-12-13
Publisher Place	Berlin, Heidelberg
Access Restriction	One Nation One Subscription (ONOS)
Subject Keyword	Homeostasis Polyethism Specialization Task performance Temperature Zoology Behavioural Sciences
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article
Subject	Animal Science and Zoology Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

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