Fever in honeybee colonies.

P T Starks; C A Blackie; T D Seeley

doi:10.1007/s001140050709

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PubMed · 10883439

Fever in honeybee colonies.

P T Starks·C A Blackie·T D Seeley

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Abstract

Honeybees, Apis spp., maintain elevated temperatures inside their nests to accelerate brood development and to facilitate defense against predators. We present an additional defensive function of elevating nest temperature: honeybees generate a brood-comb fever in response to colonial infection by the heat-sensitive pathogen Ascosphaera apis. This response occurs before larvae are killed, suggesting that either honeybee workers detect the infection before symptoms are visible, or that larvae communicate the ingestion of the pathogen. This response is a striking example of convergent evolution between this "superorganism" and other fever-producing animals.

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Animal Communication Animals Bees Body Temperature Female Larva Social Behavior Journal Article Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

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P T Starks, C A Blackie, T D Seeley. 2000. Fever in honeybee colonies.. https://doi.org/10.1007/s001140050709

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