Physiology of Brood Incubation in the Bumblebee Queen, Bombus vosnesenskii

Abstract

ONE of the parameters affecting the rate of growth and reproduction of poikilothermic organisms is temperature. In social insects such as bumblebees^1–3, which must build up their colonies rapidly to complete the cycle within a single season, the maintenance of a high nest temperature would permit the more rapid development of the poikilothermic eggs, larvae and pupae. Although heat production by bumblebees in their nests⁴ has been observed since the last century, little is known about nest temperature regulation in the initial stages of colony founding^5–7. The queen initiating the colony in the spring perches on her brood clump containing the eggs which develop into the first set of workers^1–6. I report here on the temperatures of the brood clump, the attending queen, and her thermoregulatory physiology.