Assessing honeybee and wasp thermoregulation and energetics—New insights by combination of flow-through respirometry with infrared thermography
| Autor: | Helmut Kovac, Anton Stabentheiner, Stefan K. Hetz, Helmut Käfer, Gabriel Stabentheiner |
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| Rok vydání: | 2012 |
| Předmět: |
0106 biological sciences
030310 physiology media_common.quotation_subject Flow (psychology) Foraging Honeybee Zoology Insect 010603 evolutionary biology 01 natural sciences Article 03 medical and health sciences Respirometry Thermography / Respirometry / Energetics / Temperature / Honeybee / Wasp Energetics Critical thermal maximum Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Instrumentation media_common 0303 health sciences Temperature Thermoregulation Wasp Condensed Matter Physics Thermography Environmental science |
| Zdroj: | Thermochimica Acta |
| ISSN: | 0040-6031 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.tca.2012.02.006 |
| Popis: | Graphical abstract . Highlights ► We demonstrate the benefits of a combined use of infrared thermography with respiratory measurements in insect ecophysiological research. ► Infrared thermography enables repeated investigation of behaviour and thermoregulation without behavioural impairment. ► Comparison with respirometry brings new insights into the mechanisms of energetic optimisation of bee and wasp foraging. ► Combination of methods improves interpretation of respiratory traces in determinations of insect critical thermal limits. Endothermic insects like honeybees and some wasps have to cope with an enormous heat loss during foraging because of their small body size in comparison to endotherms like mammals and birds. The enormous costs of thermoregulation call for optimisation. Honeybees and wasps differ in their critical thermal maximum, which enables the bees to kill the wasps by heat. We here demonstrate the benefits of a combined use of body temperature measurement with infrared thermography, and respiratory measurements of energy turnover (O2 consumption or CO2 production via flow-through respirometry) to answer questions of insect ecophysiological research, and we describe calibrations to receive accurate results. To assess the question of what foraging honeybees optimise, their body temperature was compared with their energy turnover. Honeybees foraging from an artificial flower with unlimited sucrose flow increased body surface temperature and energy turnover with profitability of foraging (sucrose content of the food; 0.5 or 1.5 mol/L). Costs of thermoregulation, however, were rather independent of ambient temperature (13–30 °C). External heat gain by solar radiation was used to increase body temperature. This optimised foraging energetics by increasing suction speed. In determinations of insect respiratory critical thermal limits, the combined use of respiratory measurements and thermography made possible a more conclusive interpretation of respiratory traces. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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