Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Sociality has brought many advantages to various hymenoptera species, including their ability
of regulating physical factors in their nest (e.g., temperature). Although less studied,
humidity is known to be important for egg, larval and pupal development, and also for nectar
concentration. Two subspecies of Apis mellifera of the M evolutionary lineage were used as
models to test the ability of a superorganism (i.e. honeybee colony) to regulate the humidity
in its nest (i.e. “hygroregulation hypothesis”) in four conservation centers: two in France (A.
m. mellifera) and two in Portugal (A. m. iberiensis). We investigated the ability of both subspecies
to regulate the humidity in hives daily, but also during the seasons for one complete
year. Our data and statistical analysis demonstrated the capacity of the bees to regulate
humidity in their hive, regardless of the day, season or subspecies. Furthermore, the study
showed that humidity in beehives is stable even during winter, when brood is absent, and
when temperature is known to be less stable in the beehives. These results suggest that
humidity is important for honeybees at every life stage, maybe because of the ‘imprint’ of the
evolutionary history of this hymenopteran lineage.
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Citation
Eouzan, Iris; Garnery, Lionel; Pinto, M. Alice; Delalande, Damien; Neves, Cátia J.; Fabre, Francis; Lesobre, Jérôme; Houte, Sylvie; Estonba, Andone; Montes, Iratxe; Sime-Ngando, Télesphore; Biron, David G. (2019). Hygroregulation, a key ability for eusocial insects: Native Western European honeybees as a case study. PLoS ONE. ISSN 1932-6203. 14, p. 1-15