Increasing thermal stress with flight distance in stingless bees (Melipona subnitida) in the Brazilian tropical dry forest: Implications for constraint on foraging range

Souza, João Batista Freire de; Teixeira-Souza, Vinício Heidy da Silva; Oliveira-Souza, Aline; Oliveira, Paloma Fernandes de; Queiroz, João Paulo Araújo Fernandes de; Hrncir, Michael

doi:10.1016/j.jinsphys.2020.104056

Cited by 25 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 54 publications

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“…As in other bees (Heinrich 1993), the thoracic temperatures of M. subnitida foragers increase with air temperature, exceeding these, on average, by approximately 9.5°C (Souza-Junior et al 2020). Despite more intensive heating of the thorax with increasing flight distance, the bees show similar thoracic temperatures at foraging distances between 15 and 100 m (Souza-Junior et al 2020). This thermal stability can be explained through an increasing dissipation of excess heat from the thorax to the head and the abdomen with increasing flight distance (Souza-Junior et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 70%

“…Daily maxima, however, may easily reach 40°C in the shade and even more than 50°C in full sunlight (Maia-Silva et al 2015;Hrncir et al 2019). As in other bees (Heinrich 1993), the thoracic temperatures of M. subnitida foragers increase with air temperature, exceeding these, on average, by approximately 9.5°C (Souza-Junior et al 2020). Despite more intensive heating of the thorax with increasing flight distance, the bees show similar thoracic temperatures at foraging distances between 15 and 100 m (Souza-Junior et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Two physiological characteristics, cooling capacity and the upper thermal limit, determine up to which ambient temperature bees may sustain foraging. Cooling occurs mainly through shunting excess heat from the thorax to the abdomen and the head (Heinrich 1980;Heinrich and Buchmann 1986;Souza-Junior et al 2020) as well as through evaporative and convective heat loss (Nicolson and Louw 1982;Roberts et al 1998;Roberts and Harrison 1999). Yet, with increasing foraging distance, cooling becomes less efficient, since physiological countermeasures might no longer compensate the extended heat gain associated, primarily, with prolonged flight muscle work (Souza-Junior et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Despite more intensive heating of the thorax with increasing flight distance, the bees show similar thoracic temperatures at foraging distances between 15 and 100 m (Souza-Junior et al 2020). This thermal stability can be explained through an increasing dissipation of excess heat from the thorax to the head and the abdomen with increasing flight distance (Souza-Junior et al 2020). Evaporative heat loss at these body parts may compensate the heat gain (Roberts and Harrison 1999).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At air temperatures above 30°C, however, this cooling mechanism is efficient only during short flights. At feeding sites beyond 50 m, the heat gain at the head and abdomen exceeds the cooling capacity, causing an increasing temperature excess in these body parts (Souza-Junior et al 2020).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Don’t stay out too long! Thermal tolerance of the stingless bees Melipona subnitida decreases with increasing exposure time to elevated temperatures

et al. 2020

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In hot climates, foraging bees risk overheating during food collection. Here, we investigated influence of ambient temperature on the foraging activity in Melipona subnitida , a stingless bee species that naturally occurs in the hottest and driest regions of the Brazilian tropical dry forest. We observed a decrease in round-trip duration of pollen foragers with increasing ambient temperature. Foraging duration of nectar collectors, however, was not affected by the thermal conditions of the environment. When exposed to heat stress in incubators, the upper thermal limits of foragers decreased with increasing exposure time. Moreover, individuals with previous access to liquid food showed higher critical and lethal temperatures than unfed bees. Our study revealed plastic changes in the upper thermal limit of M. subnitida , which help to understand the foraging activity pattern of this stingless bee species.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 70%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Don’t stay out too long! Thermal tolerance of the stingless bees Melipona subnitida decreases with increasing exposure time to elevated temperatures

et al. 2020

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You are what you eat – The influence of polyphagic and monophagic diet on the flight performance of bees

Krüger,

Buchholz,

Schmitt

et al. 2024

Ecology and Evolution

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Movement performance of insects is an important measure of physiological fitness and is likely affected by novel stressors associated with global change. Reduced fitness can lead to smaller foraging areas and thus to decreasing abundance, diversity and nutritional quality, which could weaken insect populations and contribute to global insect decline. Here, we combined two different methods: An experimental semi‐field design applying treatments in outdoor flight cages and a follow‐up experiment conducted in the laboratory, in which different parameters of movement performance, such as (a) velocity, (b) duration and (c) distance of an insect's flight can be quantified. We kept colonies of the bumblebee Bombus terrestris under contrasting nutritional conditions and measured treatment effects on the movement performance of individuals. Monophagously fed bumblebees showed reduced movement performance than polyphagously fed bumblebees. In particular, they stopped more frequently during flight, flew shorter distances and showed less often flight duration of 20 min. Our results suggest that nutritional deficiency due to a monophagic diet leads to reduced flight performance, which can have dramatic negative consequences for bees. Reduced flight performance may result in decreased availability of host plants, which may negatively affect stress resistance of bees and brood provisioning, facilitating extinction of insects. Although food of great nutritional value is an important compensator for the negative effects of different novel stressor, such as pesticides, it is not much known how to compensate for the effects of nutritional stress, especially in landscapes dominated by monocultures. However, our experimental approach with semi‐field and laboratory components has high potential for further studies investigating the impact of different stressors on the physiological fitness of insects but also body mass, or reproductive success and to find factors that may mitigate or even overcome the negative effect of stressors on insects.

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Foraging

Grüter

2020

Fascinating Life Sciences

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Increasing thermal stress with flight distance in stingless bees (Melipona subnitida) in the Brazilian tropical dry forest: Implications for constraint on foraging range

Cited by 25 publications

References 54 publications

Don’t stay out too long! Thermal tolerance of the stingless bees Melipona subnitida decreases with increasing exposure time to elevated temperatures

Don’t stay out too long! Thermal tolerance of the stingless bees Melipona subnitida decreases with increasing exposure time to elevated temperatures

You are what you eat – The influence of polyphagic and monophagic diet on the flight performance of bees

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