Thermoregulation in stingless bees
Description
This study investigates thermal regulation in the stingless bee Tetragonula iridipennis (Smith) under managed conditions in semi-arid India. We continuously monitored nest temperature and relative humidity using sensor-based systems and examined the thermal environment maintained within colonies under naturally varying ambient conditions. The study addresses an important gap in the thermal biology of stingless bees, for which continuous nest microclimate observations and experimental evidence concerning factors influencing thermal regulation remain limited. Rather than treating nest temperature as a purely descriptive variable, our study examines the relationship between environmental conditions and the colony's nest microclimate.
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Steps to reproduce
Colony selection and hive setup Three healthy colonies of T. iridipennis, maintained in standardised wooden box hives, were selected for continuous microclimate monitoring and designated H1, H2 and H3. Colonies were chosen on the basis of an active foraging workforce, an intact and well-formed ceruminous involucrum within the brood chamber, the absence of visible disease, pest infestation or absconding behaviour and broadly comparable colony strength as judged by visual inspection of brood area and bee population. 3.1.2 Sensor system and data logging Hive microclimate was monitored using two models of Govee smart temperature and humidity sensor (Govee Technology Co., Ltd., Shenzhen, China). The Govee H5075, fitted with a Swiss-made sensor element, was used for brood chamber monitoring and offers a temperature range of −20 °C to +60 °C (accuracy ±0.5 °C) and a relative humidity range of 0–99% RH (accuracy ±3% RH). The Govee B5178, an indoor/outdoor model suited to continuous outdoor deployment, served as the ambient reference sensor and offers a slightly tighter temperature accuracy of ±0.3 °C over the same range, with humidity accuracy matching the H5075. Both models were programmed to log temperature and relative humidity at 10-minute intervals through the Govee Home mobile application, providing uninterrupted continuous monitoring for the full duration of the study. Data logged within the Govee home application were periodically exported as comma-separated value (CSV) files for downstream processing. To verify the metrological reliability of the Govee B5178 ambient reference sensor, its daily mean temperature and relative humidity readings were systematically cross-validated against concurrent records from the Automatic Weather Station (AWS) maintained at Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK), Koppal, which is situated within the same research campus at a separation of less than 500 m from the on-site sensor deployment. The proximity of the two instrument stations within the same research campus ensured that both sensors sampled effectively the same atmospheric air mass, eliminating spatial heterogeneity as a source of disagreement and isolating any residual offset as a function of instrument class difference alone.
Institutions
- University of Agricultural Sciences RaichurKarnataka, Rāichūr