Heat shielding: a task for youngsters

Heat shielding is a recently identified mechanism used by worker honey bees (Apis mellifera) to help maintain constant hive temperatures. Only workers perform this behavior; in our experiment, drones actively avoided heated hive regions. Observations of marked day-old cohorts within broodcomb region...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Behavioral ecology 2005, Vol.16 (1), p.128-132
Main Authors: Starks, Philip T., Johnson, Rebecca N., Siegel, Adam J., Decelle, Meridith M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
age polyethism
Apis mellifera
honey bees
thermoregulation
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Summary:Heat shielding is a recently identified mechanism used by worker honey bees (Apis mellifera) to help maintain constant hive temperatures. Only workers perform this behavior; in our experiment, drones actively avoided heated hive regions. Observations of marked day-old cohorts within broodcomb regions indicate that heat shielding is performed by young bees to preferentially protect advanced stage larvae and pupae. As expected, the number of heat-shielders significantly increased with both the temperature of the heat source and the size of the colony. Of the young bees observed to perform the behavior, those aged 12–14 days were significantly more likely to heat-shield than expected. Combined, these data suggest that classifications of age-based tasks in honey bees should include heat shielding, and that the behavior is an adaptation designed to protect temperature-sensitive brood.
ISSN:1045-2249
1465-7279
DOI:10.1093/beheco/arh124