SELF-ORGANIZED THERMOREGULATION OF HONEYBEE CLUSTERS

A simple model is used to examine the role of movement and metabolism in the thermoregulation of a cluster of honeybees (A. mellifera mellif era). The thermoregulation is thought to be a result of individual bee s attempting to regulate their own body temperatures between allowable limits. The bees respond to decreases in their immediate, or local, t emperature by a combination of increased metabolic activity, and movem ents towards their neighbours. This is modelled by coupling a thermota xis-diffusion equation for the cluster density to a heat equation with a temperature and density dependent source. It is assumed that the he at transfer within the cluster is dominated by conduction. The tempera ture profiles predicted by the model agree qualitatively with those ob served. The model also predicts the density profiles within the cluste r. These agree with qualitative observations in the literature.