Bumble bees heat up for high quality pollen.
نویسندگان
چکیده
Thermoregulation plays a key role in bee foraging, allowing some species to forage in suboptimal temperatures. Recently, bumble bee thoracic temperature (T(th)) has been shown to increase with nectar carbohydrate content. However, pollen is also vital to bees and exhibits a greater than 20-fold range in protein quality. We provide the first demonstration that bee T(th) is also correlated with pollen quality. We allowed bumble bee, Bombus impatiens, foragers from two colonies to collect pollen varying in quality (25%, 50%, 75% and 100% by mass mixed with indigestible alpha-cellulose). We used infrared thermography to measure surface T(th) when a forager finished collecting feeder pollen and when she returned to the nest. Foragers significantly elevated their T(th) over ambient air temperature while collecting pollen and maintained this elevated T(th) upon returning to the nest. On average, foragers increased T(th) over ambient by 0.4 degrees C per 25% increase in pollen protein content. Bumble bees can therefore adjust their thoracic temperature according to pollen quality.
منابع مشابه
ERRATUM Bumble bee pollen foraging regulation: role of pollen quality, storage levels, and odor
The regulation of protein collection through pollen foraging plays an important role in pollination and in the life of bee colonies that adjust their foraging to natural variation in pollen protein quality and temporal availability. Bumble bees occupy a wide range of habitats from the Nearctic to the Tropics in which they play an important role as pollinators. However, little is known about how...
متن کاملWidespread contamination of wildflower and bee-collected pollen with complex mixtures of neonicotinoids and fungicides commonly applied to crops.
There is considerable and ongoing debate as to the harm inflicted on bees by exposure to agricultural pesticides. In part, the lack of consensus reflects a shortage of information on field-realistic levels of exposure. Here, we quantify concentrations of neonicotinoid insecticides and fungicides in the pollen of oilseed rape, and in pollen of wildflowers growing near arable fields. We then comp...
متن کاملCorrection: Bumble bees regulate their intake of essential protein and lipid pollen macronutrients
Bee population declines are linked to the reduction of nutritional resources due to land-use intensification, yet we know little about the specific nutritional needs of many bee species. Pollen provides bees with their primary source of protein and lipids, but nutritional quality varies widely among host-plant species. Therefore, bees might have adapted to assess resource quality and adjust the...
متن کاملThe Abundance and Pollen Foraging Behaviour of Bumble Bees in Relation to Population Size of Whortleberry (Vaccinium uliginosum)
Habitat fragmentation can have severe effects on plant pollinator interactions, for example changing the foraging behaviour of pollinators. To date, the impact of plant population size on pollen collection by pollinators has not yet been investigated. From 2008 to 2010, we monitored nine bumble bee species (Bombus campestris, Bombus hortorum s.l., Bombus hypnorum, Bombus lapidarius, Bombus pasc...
متن کاملPollination success following loss of a frequent pollinator: the role of compensatory visitation by other effective pollinators
Pollinator abundance is declining worldwide and may lower the quantity and quality of pollination services to flowering plant populations. Loss of an important pollinator is often assumed to reduce the amount of pollen received by stigmas of a focal species (pollination success), yet this assumption has rarely been tested experimentally. The magnitude of the effect, if any, may depend on the re...
متن کاملذخیره در منابع من
با ذخیره ی این منبع در منابع من، دسترسی به آن را برای استفاده های بعدی آسان تر کنید
برای دانلود متن کامل این مقاله و بیش از 32 میلیون مقاله دیگر ابتدا ثبت نام کنید
ثبت ناماگر عضو سایت هستید لطفا وارد حساب کاربری خود شوید
ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- The Journal of experimental biology
دوره 211 Pt 14 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2008