Temperature and the pollinating activity of social bees

Abstract. 1 Thermal constraints on flight acivity limit the pollinating effectiveness of bees. Each species of social bee has a microclimatic ‘window’ within which foraging flight can be sustained. 2 To predict whether a given species of social bee is worth testing as a pollinator in a given climate, it is useful to know at least the lower limits of that microclimatic ‘window’. We consider how information from a series of bee counts through a day can be used to characterize a bee species in terms of activity/microclimate relations as a basis for predicting the diel pattern of foraging activity of a bee introduced into a new climate as a pollinator. 3 We discuss the relative merits of bee counts at a foraging patch and counts based on hive traffic as indices of the proportion of bees active. 4 We suggest that the activity/microclimate relations of a species be expressed in terms of the lower threshold black globe temperature for flight activity. Black globe temperature, Tg, is easily measured with inexpensive equipment, and can substitute for measurements of ambient temperature and radiation as a predictor of diel patterns of bee activity. 5 We use examples of field data to explore the relationship between microclimate and activity for the honeybee Apis mellifera and several species of bumblebee, Bombus. Regression analysis is used to relate activity to Tg and to identify the lower temperature threshold for activity from field bee counts. 6 In field studies analysed here, the bumblebees Bombus terrestrisllucorum, B.pascuorum and B.hortorum began foraging at lower temperatures than honey‐bees or B.lapidarius.