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Abstract: Endothermic insects like honeybees and some wasps have to cope with an enormous heat loss during foraging because of their small body size in comparison to endotherms like mammals and birds. The enormous costs of thermoregulation call for optimisation. Honeybees and wasps differ in their critical thermal maximum, which enables the bees to kill the wasps by heat. We here demonstrate the benefits of a combined use of body temperature measurement with infrared thermography, and respiratory measurements of energy turnover (O2 consumption or CO2 production via flow-through respirometry) to answer questions of insect ecophysiological research, and we describe calibrations to receive accurate results. To assess the question of what foraging honeybees optimise, their body temperature was compared with their energy turnover. Honeybees foraging from an artificial flower with unlimited sucrose flow increased body surface temperature and energy turnover with profitability of foraging (sucrose content of the food; 0.5 or 1.5mol/L). Costs of thermoregulation, however, were rather independent of ambient temperature (13–30°C). External heat gain by solar radiation was used to increase body temperature. This optimised foraging energetics by increasing suction speed. In determinations of insect respiratory critical thermal limits, the combined use of respiratory measurements and thermography made possible a more conclusive interpretation of respiratory traces. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Foraging honeybees are subjected to considerable variations of microclimatic conditions challenging their thermoregulatory ability. Solar heat is a gain in the cold but may be a burden in the heat. We investigated the balancing of endothermic activity with radiative heat gain and physiological functions of water foraging Apis mellifera carnica honeybees in the whole range of ambient temperatures (T a) and solar radiation they are likely to be exposed in their natural environment in Middle Europe. The mean thorax temperature (T th) during foraging stays was regulated at a constantly high level (37.0–38.5°C) in a broad range of T a (3–30°C). At warmer conditions (T a =30–39°C) T th increased to a maximal level of 45.3°C. The endothermic temperature excess (difference of T body − T a of living and dead bees) was used to assess the endogenously generated temperature elevation as a correlate of energy turnover. Up to a T a of ∼30°C bees used solar heat gain for a double purpose: to reduce energetic expenditure and to increase T th by about 1–3°C to improve force production of flight muscles. At higher T a they exhibited cooling efforts to get rid of excess heat. A high T th also allowed regulation of the head temperature high enough to guarantee proper function of the bees’ suction pump even at low T a. This shortened the foraging stays and this way reduced energetic costs. With decreasing T a bees also reduced arrival body weight and crop loading to do both minimize costs and optimize flight performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The relation between the respiratory activity of resting honeybees and ambient temperature (T a) was investigated in the range of 5–40°C. Bees were kept in a temperature controlled flow through respirometer chamber where their locomotor and endothermic activity, as well as abdominal ventilatory movements was recorded by infrared thermography. Surprisingly, true resting bees were often weakly endothermic (thorax surface up to 2.8°C warmer than abdomen) at a T a of 14–30°C. Above 33°C many bees cooled their body via evaporation from their mouthparts. A novel mathematical model allows description of the relationship of resting (standard) metabolic rate and temperature across the entire functional temperature range of bees. In chill coma (<11°C) bees were ectothermic and CO2 release was mostly continuous. CO2 release rate (nls−1) decreased from 9.3 at 9.7°C to 5.4 at 5°C. At a T a of >11°C CO2 was released discontinuously. In the bees’ active temperature range mean CO2 production rate (nls−1) increased sigmoidally (10.6 at 14.1°C, 24.1 at 26.5°C, and 55.2 at 38.1°C), coming to a halt towards the upper lethal temperature. This was primarily accomplished by an exponential increase in gas exchange frequency (0.54 and 3.1breathsmin−1 at 14.1 and 38.1°C) but not in released CO2 volume per respiratory cycle (1487 and 1083nlcycle−1 at 14.1 and 38.1°C). Emission of CO2 bursts was mostly (98%) accompanied by abdominal ventilation movements even in small CO2 bursts. Larger bursts coincided with a longer duration of active ventilation. An increased amount of CO2 expelled per unit time of ventilation indicates a higher efficiency of ventilation at high ambient temperatures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

We measured the energy turnover (oxygen consumption) of honeybees (Apis mellifera carnica), which were free to move within Warburg vessels. Oxygen consumption of active bees varied widely depending on ambient temperature and level of activity, but did not differ between foragers (>18 d) and middle-aged hive bees (7–10 d). In highly active bees, which were in an endothermic state ready for flight, it decreased almost linearly, from a maximum of 131.4 μl O2 min−1 at 15 °C ambient temperature to 81.1 μl min−1 at 25 °C, and reached a minimum of 29.9 μl min−1 at 40 °C. In bees with low activity, it decreased from 89.3 μl O2 min−1 at 15 °C to 47.9 μl min−1 at 25 °C and 14.7 μl min−1 at 40 °C. Thermographic measurements of body temperature showed that with increasing activity, the bees invested more energy to regulate the thorax temperature at increasingly higher levels (38.8–41.2 °C in highly active bees) and were more accurate.Resting metabolism was determined in young bees of 1–7 h age, which are not yet capable of endothermic heat production with their flight muscles. Their energy turnover increased from 0.21 μl O2 min−1 at 10 °C to 0.38 μl min−1 at 15 °C, 1.12 μl min−1 at 25 °C, and 3.03 μl min−1 at 40 °C. At 15, 25 and 40 °C, this was 343, 73 and 10 times below the values of the highly active bees, respectively. The Q10 value of the resting bees, however, was not constant but varied in a U-shaped manner with ambient temperature. It decreased from 4.24 in the temperature range 11–21 °C to 1.35 in the range 21–31 °C, and increased again to 2.49 in the range 30–40 °C. We conclude that attempts to describe the temperature dependence of the resting metabolism of honeybees by Q10 values can lead to considerable errors if the measurements are performed at only two temperatures. An acceptable approximation can be derived by calculation of an interpolated Q10 according to the exponential function VO2=0.151×1.0784Ta (interpolated Q10=2.12). [Copyright &y& Elsevier]