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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access originally published online on July 21, 2004
Behavioral Ecology 2005 16(1):128-132; doi:10.1093/beheco/arh124
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Behavioral Ecology vol. 16 no. 1 © International Society for Behavioral Ecology 2005; all rights reserved.

Heat shielding: a task for youngsters

Philip T. Starksa, Rebecca N. Johnsona, Adam J. Siegela and Meridith M. Decelleb

a Department of Biology, Tufts University, Medford, MA, 02155, USA, and b University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA 01854, USA

Address correspondence to P.T. Starks. E-mail: philip.starks{at}tufts.edu.

Heat shielding is a recently identified mechanism used by worker honey bees (Apis mellifera) to help maintain constant hive temperatures. Only workers perform this behavior; in our experiment, drones actively avoided heated hive regions. Observations of marked day-old cohorts within broodcomb regions indicate that heat shielding is performed by young bees to preferentially protect advanced stage larvae and pupae. As expected, the number of heat-shielders significantly increased with both the temperature of the heat source and the size of the colony. Of the young bees observed to perform the behavior, those aged 12–14 days were significantly more likely to heat-shield than expected. Combined, these data suggest that classifications of age-based tasks in honey bees should include heat shielding, and that the behavior is an adaptation designed to protect temperature-sensitive brood.

Key words: age polyethism, Apis mellifera, honey bees, thermoregulation.


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