Thresholds of response in nest thermoregulation by worker bumble bees, Bombus bifarius nearcticus (Hymenoptera: Apidae)
Thresholds of response in nest thermoregulation by worker bumble bees, Bombus bifarius nearcticus (Hymenoptera: Apidae)
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DOI：
10.1046/j.1439-0310.2001.00668.x
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发表时间：
2001-05-01
期刊：
影响因子：
1.7
通讯作者：
Foster, RL
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
O'Donnell, S;Foster, RL
巢穴温度的调节对于社会性昆虫群体的健康非常重要。为了维持发育中的雏鸟的适当条件，工蚁必须对环境温度表现出体温调节反应。由于同窝工蚁的任务表现不同，体温调节行为提供了一个测试劳动分工调节反应模型阈值的机会。我们发现工蜂（Bombus bifarius nearcticus）通过改变执行两项任务（扇动翅膀和育雏细胞孵化）的速率来响应环境温度的变化。在菌落水平上，随着温度的升高，孵化率降低，扇动率增加。执行这些任务的工蚁数量的变化对蚁群反应的影响比工蚁任务执行率的变化更为重要。在个人层面上，工人的终生孵化率和扇动率呈正相关，并且大多数人并不专门从事这些对温度敏感的任务。然而，工人们在孵化的最高温度和通风的最低温度方面有所不同。更多的个体在高温下扇动并在低温下孵化。当更多的巢友变得活跃时，大多数开始在较高温度下孵化的工蜂继续在较低温度下执行这项任务。对于扇风行为来说，情况正好相反。这些数据与 B. bifarius 工蚁体温调节行为的响应模型阈值一致。
Regulation of nest temperature is important to the fitness of eusocial insect colonies. To maintain appropriate conditions for the developing brood, workers must exhibit thermoregulatory responses to ambient temperature. Because nestmate workers differ in task performance, thermoregulatory behavior provides an opportunity to test threshold of response models for the regulation of division of labor. We found that worker bumble bees (Bombus bifarius nearcticus) responded to changes in ambient temperature by altering their rates of performing two tasks - wing fanning and brood cell incubation. At the colony level, the rate of incubating decreased, and the rate of fanning increased, with increasing temperature. Changes in the number of workers performing these tasks were more important to the colony response than changes in workers' task performance rates. At the individual level, workers' lifetime rates of incubation and fanning were positively correlated, and most individuals did not specialize exclusively on either of these temperature-sensitive tasks. However, workers differed in the maximum temperature at which they incubated and in the minimum temperature at which they fanned. More individuals fanned at high and incubated at low temperatures. Most of the workers that began incubating at higher temperatures continued performing this task at lower temperatures, when additional nest-mates became active. The converse was true for fanning behavior. These data are consistent with a threshold of response model for thermoregulatory behavior of B. bifarius workers.