A BEEHIVE runs a fever when it gets sick, just like people, says Philip
Starks and his colleagues at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York.
Like other social insects, bees keep their nests warm to speed up the growth
of their larvae. But Starks found that if the fungus Ascosphaera apis
is added, bees increase the temperature of their nests by a further 0.56 °C. At
the higher temperature the fungus cannot infect and kill larvae (
Naturwissenschaften, vol 87, p 229).
The fever-like behaviour of the colony is strikingly similar to that of an
individual animal and may be…
