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Behavioral Ecology Advance Access published online on July 21, 2004
Behavioral Ecology, doi:10.1093/beheco/arh124
© 2004 by International Society for Behavioral Ecology
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Received September 21, 2003
Revised March 27, 2004
Accepted May 6, 2004

Article

Heat shielding: a task for youngsters

Philip T. Starks 1*, Rebecca N. Johnson 1, Adam J. Siegel 1, Meridith M. Decelle 2

1 Department of Biology, Tufts University, Medford, MA, 02155, USA
2 University of Massachusetts, Lowell, MA 01854, USA

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: philip.starks{at}tufts.edu.


  Abstract

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.

Keywords: age polyethism; Apis mellifera; honey bees; thermoregulation.
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