Experimental and natural variation in hovering flight capacity in bees, Hymenoptera: Apidae

Experimental and Natural Variation in Hovering Flight Capacity in Bees, Hymenoptera: Apidae By Jason Thomas Vance Dr. Stephen Roberts, Examination Committee Chair Associate Professor of Biological Sciences University of Nevada, Las Vegas In honey bees, the capacity for flight underlies many behaviors which impact fitness and longevity, such as the ability to forage or evade predators. However, flight capacity is not fixed across bees’ lifespan, which is punctuated by a suite of physiological changes that accompany age and the transition from in-hive to foraging behaviors; thus, flight capacity may vary during periods of development, senescence, or in response to morphological damage such as wing wear. This dissertation describes the biomechanics and aerodynamics which contribute to the scope of honey bee flight performance, and investigates how age, behavioral development, and wing-wear affects flight kinematics and maximal flight capacity. Three experiments were performed using high-speed (4347-6000 fps) digital videography and variable-density atmospheres, ranging from air (79%N2, 21%O2; 1.41 kg m) to heliox (79%He, 21%O2; 0.41 kg m): 1) the detailed kinematics of honey bee foragers during hovering in air, performing simple enhancedlift maneuvers, and hovering in heliox were compared; 2) I investigated the effects of age and behavioral development on the kinematics and flight capacity of honey bee