#theBeeAt3
Basic bee facts every day at 3pm.
# 222
Whereas we have a ‘closed’ circulatory system (blood is transported within arteries and veins) bees have an ‘open’ circulatory system where their tissues are simply bathed in hemolymph (blood). No arteries or veins required!
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Basic bee facts every day at 3pm.
# 221
Bumblebee ‘blood’ is called hemolymph and the main component of this circulatory fluid is water.
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Basic bee facts every day at 3pm.
# 220
#bumblebees are actually warm-blooded creatures.
They have the ability to generate heat internally.
This generation of heat is not constant as with mammals but allows them to thrive in colder regions such as Alaska.
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Basic bee facts every day at 3pm.
# 219
The bee heart is not ‘heart’ ❤️ shaped but straw shaped.
It is a simple muscular tube that runs the length of the bee body from the abdomen through the thorax to the head circulating the bee blood (hemolymph).
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Basic bee facts every day at 3pm.
# 218
Although not always immediately obvious due to their hairy coats the bumblebee abdomen is actually joined to the thorax by a narrow little tube-like waist.
This waist is called the petiole.
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Basic bee facts every day at 3pm.
# 216
The maximum critical temperature for #bumblebees - which leads to an unresponsive state in turn preceded by muscular spasms - is arrived at somewhere between 40°C and 53°C depending on the species and duration of the stress.
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Basic bee facts every day at 3pm.
# 215
Sticking with temperature related bumblebee facts:
When ambient air temperature reaches 35°C, the thoracic temperature of flying #bumblebees approaches 45°C ; a temperature close to the limit which is lethal to the #bees.
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#theBeeAt3
Basic bee facts every day at 3pm.
# 214
32°C is in or around the upper limit of temperatures at which #bumblebees will tend to forage - a temperature that many species in the Northern Hemisphere will experience more & more as #climate breakdown really kicks in.
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🐝⚡ Researchers at Queen Mary University of #London successfully taught #bumblebees to differentiate between short and long light pulses (similar to morse code dots and dashes) to locate sugar rewards, demonstrating processing abilities previously thought too complex for insect brains.
👉 https://www.sciencealert.com/scientists-have-trained-bumblebees-to-understand-a-form-of-morse-code
Scientists shocked as bumblebees learn to read simple “Morse code” https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/11/251112011803.htm
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Basic bee facts every day at 3pm.
# 213
Where the ambient temperature is elevated the learning and memory abilities of #bumblebees are severely impacted.
This seriously affects the capability of bumblebee workers to provide adequate nutrition to the colony.
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"Duration discrimination in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris", Davidson et al. 2025 (Elizabetta Versace's lab)
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbl.2025.0440
In other words, bees can tell time:
"Bees could discriminate between durations when the amount of stimulation in each presentation cycle was the same."
Some commentary from the authors here:
https://edition.cnn.com/2025/11/12/science/bees-visual-stimulus-study-scli-intl
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Basic bee facts every day at 3pm.
# 212
Research suggests that even relatively short periods (a matter of hours) of exposure to heatwave‐like temperatures can severely impair the cognitive performance of insects including #bumblebees.
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🐝🌍
#Scientists shocked as #bumblebees learn to read simple #Morsecode
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/11/251112011803.htm
Different Bee Species Have Different Nutritional Needs
#Bumblebees #pollinators #flowers #nutrition #ecology #conservation https://grrlscientist.substack.com/p/different-bees-species-have-different
Different Bee Species Have Different Nutritional Needs
#Bumblebees #pollinators #flowers #nutrition #ecology #conservation https://grrlscientist.substack.com/p/different-bees-species-have-different
#theBeeAt3
Basic bee facts every day at 3pm.
# 211
The central place foraging behaviour of #bumblebees requires that they have cognitive capacities such as navigation, memory and learning.
Anything which impairs these capabilities will impact upon the health of the colony.
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Entomovectoring with Mojgan Rabiey at Warwick - bumblebees can carry bacteriophages to cherry flowers, allowing control of cherry canker on flowers (and thus fruit) - bees can find the flowers better than we can to distribute the phages.
I've never heard of it with phages before but seems an exciting and promising (and environmentally safer) route to part of canker management. Also means bees don't spread the pathogen as the phage "disinfects" them.
Different Bee Species Have Different Nutritional Needs
#Bumblebees #pollinators #flowers #nutrition #ecology #conservation https://grrlscientist.substack.com/p/different-bees-species-have-different
#theBeeAt3
Basic bee facts every day at 3pm.
# 209
# 208 contd
Bumblebee v Honeybee
When searching for a specific ‘target’ #bumblebees are slower but more accurate than #honeybees which are faster/more impulsive and make more errors. Bumblebees sacrifice speed for accuracy.
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