Flight of the honey bee VII: metabolic power versus flight speed relation |
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Authors: | W Nachtigall U Hanauer-Thieser M Mörz |
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Institution: | (1) Zoologisches Institut, Universität des Saarlandes, D-66041 Saarbrücken, Germany |
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Abstract: | The existing experimental data on metabolic power P
m of honey bees are critically discussed, partly corrected for real flight conditions and plotted as a function of flight speed v. New wind tunnel measurements of tethered flight under near-natural conditions are added in the range 3.3<v<5.1 m·s-1, derived from exhaustion flight measurements. Within this small sector the latter measurements can be characterised by a linear correlation: P
m(mW)=6.72v (m·s-1)+13.83, the slope of which is significantly different from zero. The over-all P
m(v) curve is significantly not a straight line of zero slope but a U-shaped minimum curve and may be approximated by a second-order polynom: P
m=49.2-8.9v+1.5v
2. The same is true for relative metabolic power, P
m rel (e) related to empty body mass of 76.5 mg: P
m rel(e)=630.0-114.0v+19.2v
2 (P
m in mW: P
m rel in mW·g-1; v in m·s-1). The data support the existence of a U-shaped power-versus-speed curve in bees.Abbreviations
bm
body mass (mg)
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f
full
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e
empty
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mu
muscles
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P
m (mJ·s-1=mW)
metabolic power (input)
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P
m rel (mW·g-1)
relative metabolic power
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P
mec (mW)
mechanical power (output)
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efficiency (of the flight musculature)
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t(s)
flight time
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v (m·s-1)
relative speed between bee and air |
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Keywords: | Insect flight Power-versus-speed relation Honey bee flight Bee Apis mellifera |
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