Exogenous and endogenous fluctuations of thermoregulatory activity in the honeybee

Thermovision and thermometric methods were used to study temperature variations in honeybee nests and in aggregations of honeybees isolated from their families. Endogenous and exogenous circadian rhythms of thermoregulatory activity and their physiological mechanisms were revealed. The magnitude of changes in this activity in response to ambient temperature decreased from the beginning to the end of wintering, which was due to the existence of a genetically determined self-regulation program in honeybees. The improvement of this program in the course of the species evolution contributed to transformation of a honeybee family into a reproducible biological unit.