<
https://theconversation.com/extreme-heat-waves-threaten-honeybee-fertility-and-trigger-sudden-death-178504>
"Temperatures soared above 42 C for days in Western Canada in June 2021, with
Lytton, B.C., registering 49.6 C, the hottest temperature ever recorded in
Canada. Wildfires scorched the province, sparking a 56-day state of emergency
and nearly 600 additional sudden deaths compared to the same time in 2020.
But humans were not the only ones affected by the heat. Beekeepers in the
Okanagan Valley reported unusual deaths of honeybee queens, drones and small
colonies. Drones, which are the reproductive males, spontaneously ejaculate
when they die from stress, and Emily Huxter, a beekeeper in Armstrong, saw
dozens of drones suddenly lying dead on the lids of her hives with their male
bits poking out.
I research how heat stress affects honeybees, and Huxter’s observations reflect
what I’ve seen in the lab. Our experiments show that after six hours at 42 C,
50 per cent of male honeybees die. The results were alarming, yet conservative
compared to previous work. Other researchers have found that up to 77 per cent
of drones die from exposure to 42 C for just four hours.
This means that after a heat wave, new queens — the reproductive females — will
have fewer opportunities to mate. Colonies headed by poorly mated queens are
more likely to collapse, and this could pose problems for farmers who rely on
honeybees to pollinate their crops. But it also betrays the risk that heat
waves pose to populations of wild insects."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
