A desert bee thermoregulates with an abdominal convector during flight
Flying endothermic insects thermoregulate, likely to improve flight performance. Males of the Sonoran Desert bee, Centris caesalpiniae Cockerell, seek females at aggregations beginning at sunrise and cease flight near midday when air temperature peaks. To identify the thermoregulatory mechanisms for...
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Zusammenfassung: | Flying endothermic insects thermoregulate, likely to improve flight
performance. Males of the Sonoran Desert bee, Centris caesalpiniae
Cockerell, seek females at aggregations beginning at sunrise and cease
flight near midday when air temperature peaks. To identify the
thermoregulatory mechanisms for C. caesalpiniae males, we measured tagma
temperatures, wingbeat frequency, water loss rates, metabolic rates, and
tagma masses of flying bees across shaded air temperatures of 19 to 38°C.
Surface area, wet mass, and dry mass declined with air temperature,
suggesting that individual bees do not persist for the entire morning. The
largest bees may be associated with cool, early mornings because they are
best able to warm themselves and/or because they run the risk of
overheating in the hot afternoons. Thorax temperatures were high (38 to
45°C) and were moderately well-regulated, while head and abdomen
temperatures were cooler and less controlled. Abdomen temperatures
converged on thorax temperatures as air temperature rose, indicating
active heat transfer from the pubescent thorax to the relatively bare
abdomen with warming. The mass-specific metabolic rate increased with
time, air, and thorax temperatures, but wingbeat frequency did not vary.
Mass-specific water loss rate increased with air temperature. Using a heat
budget model, we showed that whole-body convective conductance increased
through the morning, and that the primary mechanism of regulating thorax
temperature during flight for these bees is increased use of the abdomen
as a convector at higher air temperatures. |
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DOI: | 10.5061/dryad.3xsj3txjw |