Research/Projects
SOCIAL INSECT SOCIETIES. FROM INDIVIDUAL RESPONSES TO COLLECTIVE PATTERNS (AND BACK)
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Response decisions: How do individuals in insect societies respond to their ever changing, heterogeneous environment?
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Behavioral flexibility: How are individual responses modulated; e.g. by experience (adult and ontogenetic), age, perception of own efficiency, nutritional state and social interactions?
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Inter-individual variability: How and why do individuals differ in their responses, and what is the contribution of these inter-individual differences to the properties of their collective?
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How is the state of the collective reflected in the various feedback loops integrating individual response decisions?
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Bee decline: How do widely used agrochemicals impact individual and collective thermoregulation behavior and collective fitness?
Individual Responses
©L. Kling
©L. Kling
bumblebee worker fanning on brood
©L. Kling
worker fanning on brood dummy
©L. Kling
worker incubating on brood dummy
brood dummy
mimicking natural brood (pupae)
test arenas with temperature controlled brood dummies
thermal images of workers on brood dummies
different dummy
types to manipulate cooling efficiency
group setup with several brood dummies -
testing stimulus response behavior in a social context
collective Temperature Homeostasis
We use collective thermoregulation in bumble bees to address the questions outlined above.
Bumblebee colonies maintain their brood at high and stable temperatures. Individuals actively generate heat and incubate the brood. When temperatures are too high, individuals fan their wings and cool the brood.
Temperature homeostasis is a collective phenomenon, with individuals switching in and out of the task of thermoregulation.
In the lab, we are able to control and manipulate the stimulus (temperature) in order to study both individual and collective responses in detail.
thermal image of a split colony for within-colony comparisons
observing multiple group setups under red light
documenting collective brood temperature in bumblebee micro colonies as reliable indicator of sub-lethal effects of pesticides
©L. Fischer
