Honey bees, especially the young, are highly sensitive to temperature and to protect developing bees, adults work together to maintain temperatures within a narrow range. Recently published research led by Philip T. Starks, a biologist at Tufts University's School of Arts and Sciences, is the first to show that worker bees dissipate excess heat within a hive in process similar to how humans and other mammals cool themselves through their blood vessels and skin.
"This study shows how workers effectively dissipate the heat absorbed via heat-shielding, a mechanism used to thwart localized heat stressors," says Starks. The research is published in the June 10 edition of the journal Naturwissenschaften, which appeared online April 24.
This discovery also supports the theoretical construct of the bee hive as a superorganism—an entity in which its many members carry out specialized and vital functions to keep the whole functioning as a unit.
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