>How can an endothermic bee produce heat when endothermic requires heat.



For the purpose of the studies under consideration, 'endothermic' appears to relate to the biological understanding of, '... generating heat to maintain its body temperature, typically above the temperature of its surroundings.'



From the study:



'Since endothermy increases the thorax temperature in relation to the abdomen, the temperature difference between thorax and abdomen (Tthorax-Tabdomen) is a good correlate of endothermic activity. In our experiments Tthorax-Tabdomen of individuals was strongly affected by Texp. As the thorax temperature excess Tthorax-Tabdomen is always a mixture of local temperature gradient and degree of endothermic heat production, more clarity on endothermic activity can be achieved by filtering those bees out where the thorax was the warmest body part. Such analysis shows that the frequency of endothermic bees is higher on the brood nest than in non-brood areas, especially at extreme cold stress (Fig. 5, ​,6).6). However, there is always a considerable number of endothermic bees outside the brood nest. These bees contribute indirectly to thermal homeostasis of the brood because a minimized temperature gradient means a reduced heat flow out of the brood nest.'



             ***********************************************

The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned

LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:

http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html