Factors affecting heat resilience of drone honey bees (Apis mellifera) and their sperm.

ABSTRACT: Extreme temperatures associated with climate change are expected to impact the physiology and fertility of a variety of insects, including honey bees. Most previous work on this topic has focused on female honey bees (workers and queens), and comparatively little research has investigated how heat exposure affects males (drones). To address this gap, we tested body mass, viral infections, and population origin as predictors of drone survival and sperm viability in a series of heat challenge assays. We found that individual body mass was highly influential, with heavier drones being more likely to survive a heat challenge (4 h at 42°C) than smaller drones. In a separate experiment, we compared the survival of Northern California and Southern California drones in response to the same heat ch

SUBMITTER: McAfee A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11805398 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature