I

ANNO 1 Numero 2
Jürgen Tautz, Marco Kleinhenz, Brigitte Bujok, Fiola Bock, Stefan Fuchs [1]

Thermoregulation of the environment: a masterpiece of the honey bee
Heating bees and their behaviour in the brood nest

[1] Beegroup Würzburg, Biozentrum, Universität Würzburg (D)

Brood nest thermoregulation is part of the outstanding collective skills of the honey bees, and only now we are beginning to understand its details. Brood nest thermoregulation aims at maintaining the temperature of the capped brood between 33 and 36°C. We examine here the ways by which this task is accomplished. For now, neither the importance of the physical properties of the combs nor the knowledge acquired hitherto by us on this topic nor the significance of such a precise regulation are discussed. These aspects will be covered in subsequent articles.

Contact: tautz@biozentrum.uni-wuerzburg.de