> The outermost bees provide an insulating layer 25-75 mm in thickness, being packed thorax-tothorax with a multitude of interlacing thoracic hairs, and with heads pointed inward (Mobus, 1978, personal observation). The hairs are plumose, closely resembling the structure of bird down feathers and probably have similar insulative properties. The plumose hairs trap air resulting in a poorly conducting boundary layer next to each bee’s body. Individual bees cannot trap the same proportion of air as birds which are 300-10,000 times larger. However, the several packed layers of bees succeed in trapping similarly high relative volumes of air in an effective insulating coat for the cluster. It is clear from these results that the patterns of metabolic adaptation to low environmental temperatures by the honey bee cluster, viewed as a superorganism, are qualitatively and quantitively similar to those demonstrated in active homeothermic birds and mammals. SOUTHWICK, 1982

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