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SysEB

Student Competition 10-Minute Paper

Grad 10-min: SysEB, Social Insects

Group living confers thermal and physiological benefits in winter nests of a facultatively social bee

On-Demand
Student Competition On-Demand
Environmental challenges are major drivers in the evolution of group living. In particular, harsh seasonal conditions can promote temporary or facultative social behavior in primarily solitary animals. We asked how winter conditions might favor group living in a desert population of a facultatively social carpenter bee, Xylocopa sonorina Smith, that nests primarily in small groups during winter quiescence. We experimentally manipulated social strategy (social vs. solitary) of bees living in observation nests in ambient conditions, and measured effects of group living on bee temperature and individual physiology. Bees living in a social condition experienced significantly warmer body temperatures than solitary bees in identical nests. Furthermore, social bees experienced less body mass loss than solitary bees over the course of the one-month experimental period. However, social and solitary bees did not differ significantly in their losses of body water or lipids over this time scale. These results suggest important benefits of group living in cold and resource-scarce conditions, which may allow X. sonorina to reduce risk of freezing and emerge from winter quiescence in better physiological condition. Seasonal associations such as these provide opportunities for extended social interactions among nestmates, an important context for the selection of more complex cooperative behaviors.