“In order to survive cold northern winters, honey bees crowd tightly together in a winter cluster. Present models of winter cluster thermoregulation consider the insulation by the tightly packed mantle bees as the decisive factor for survival at lowtemperatures, mostly ignoring the possibility of endothermic heat production. Stabentheiner et al. (2003) provided direct evidence of endothermic heat production by ‘shivering’ thermogenesis. The abundance of endothermic bees is highest in the core anddecreases towards the surface. This shows that core bees play an active role in thermal control of winter clusters. They concluded that regulation of both the insulation by the mantle bees and endothermic heat production by the inner bees is necessary to achieve thermal stability in a winter cluster.”
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