"Wouldn't this active transport of
hemolymph from the muscles towards the head continually "push" heat back
towards the cluster?"
err no. This is just a heat exchanger i.e. a modification of thermal conductance. Heat pumps are something different involving phase changes. The mantle bees are not metabolising on a significant scale. So after a short time there is not much heat difference and not much ability to move the fluid and then the bee is just a bit of meat with a passive thermal gradient
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