26
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: not found

      Social versus individual behaviour: a comparative approach to thermal behaviour of the honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) and the American cockroach (Periplaneta americana L.).

      Journal of Insect Physiology
      Analysis of Variance, Animals, Bees, physiology, Body Temperature Regulation, Circadian Rhythm, Periplaneta, Social Behavior, Temperature, Time Factors

      Read this article at

      ScienceOpenPublisherPubMed
      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          To study the relationship between the individual and social thermoregulatory behaviour, we used honeybee workers and American cockroaches. Single insects or groups of 10-20 individuals were placed in a temperature gradient chamber, and their thermal preference was recorded for 48 h under natural summer photoperiod. Single bees showed diurnal changes in selected ambient temperature, which culminated at 14:00 reaching 34+/-2 degrees C, and then slowly decreased, reaching a nocturnal minimum of 28+/-2 degrees C at 04:00. In contrast, the zenith of temperature selected by groups of bees (31+/-1 degrees C) was reached at 04:00 and the nadir (29+/-2 degrees C) was recorded at 14:00. Groups of bees clustered together during the night time, and dispersed during intense day time activity. Such changes were absent in groups of cockroaches. Cockroaches selected an ambient temperature of 30+/-1 degrees C both during day and night. In conclusion, there is a striking analogy in the diurnal thermal behaviour between a colony of bees and mammals. During their nychthemeral rest phase, both of them select higher temperatures than during the activity phase and, simultaneously, they reduce their overall surface area of heat loss to conserve metabolic heat. Therefore, the colony behaves as a homeothermic superorganism. In contrast, a single bee, isolated from the colony, utilizes a heterothermic strategy to save energy for a morning warm up.

          Related collections

          Author and article information

          Journal
          15749114
          10.1016/j.jinsphys.2005.01.001

          Chemistry
          Analysis of Variance,Animals,Bees,physiology,Body Temperature Regulation,Circadian Rhythm,Periplaneta,Social Behavior,Temperature,Time Factors

          Comments

          Comment on this article