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First published online October 18, 2006
Journal of Experimental Biology 209, 4185-4192 (2006)
Published by The Company of Biologists 2006
doi: 10.1242/jeb.02528

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Hot bumble bees at good food: thoracic temperature of feeding Bombus wilmattae foragers is tuned to sugar concentration

James C. Nieh^1,*, Adolfo León², Sydney Cameron³ and Rémy Vandame²

¹ University of California, San Diego, Division of Biological Sciences, Section of Ecology, Behavior and Evolution, Gilman Drive, La Jolla, CA 92093-0116, USA
² El Colegio de la Frontera Sur, Tapachula, Chiapas, Mexico
³ University of Illinois, Department of Entomology, 320 Morrill Hall, 505 S. Goodwin Avenue, Urbana, IL 61801, USA

View larger version (17K): [in a new window]   Fig. 1. Elevated thoracic temperatures of foragers feeding on sucrose solutions. The relationship between thorax temperature (Tth) and ambient air temperature (Ta) for feeding bees. With the exception of seven measurements from evidently ectothermic foragers at the lowest sucrose concentration (marked by black arrows), all Tth values are above Ta (lower broken line). Pooled data from all colonies for the highest and lowest sucrose concentrations (m) used are shown (m=0.5 mol l-1: Ncolonies=6, Nmeasurements=250, Nindividual bees=161; m=2.5 mol l-1; Ncolonies=6, Nmeasurements=497, Nindividual bees=161). Linear regression lines with y-intercept values are given.

View larger version (20K): [in a new window]   Fig. 2. Effect of sucrose concentration on (A) forager body temperature as shown through a thermal image (Raytek ThermoView Ti30 infrared imager, FLW Inc., San Diego, CA, USA) during a preliminary investigation of colony 1 on sucrose concentrations of 1 mol l-1 or 2.5 mol l-1, (B) average Tth, (C) proportion of foragers adjusted for different colony sizes (G1 and G2 refer to colonies groups 1 and 2, respectively; see text). (D) Average ambient air temperatures Ta during the trials are also shown. Values are means ± 1 s.d.