Towards departure, the Tth increased significantly at low and medium Ta. At a mean Ta of 12.0 °C from 37.0 to 39.7 °C, and at a mean Target Selective Inhibitor Library Ta of 21.2 °C from 35.8 to 38.6 °C. At a high Ta of 34.2 °C, by contrast, Tth decreased towards departure from 42.0 to 40.8 °C (Mann–Whitney/Wilcoxon test, P < 0.001). The temperature of the head and the abdomen decreased significantly (P < 0.05) from landing till take off with one exception (abdomen at low Ta). The Tth of living and dead bees was

always elevated above Ta, but to a different degree in the three different ranges of ambient temperature ( Fig. 6A–C; regression statistics in Table 4). At low Ta ( Fig. 6A; mean Ta = 12.0 °C) the thorax temperature excess (Tth − Ta, mean values of regression lines) of the living bees decreased from 27.7 to 25.4 °C as solar radiation increased from 90 to 862 W m−2 (−3.0 °C kW−1 m−2)

whereas in dead bees it increased from 1.0 to 12.3 °C as solar radiation increased from 90 to 810 W m−2 (15.7 °C kW−1 m−2). Even at high radiation there remained a great difference between living and dead bees (11.4 °C at 900 W m−2). At medium Ta ( Fig. 6B; mean Ta = 21.2 °C) the thorax temperature excess of the living bees decreased from 15.9 to 13.9 °C (−1.7 °C kW−1 m−2) as solar radiation increased from 56 to 1221 W m−2 whereas in dead bees it increased from 2.6 to 11.1 °C (8.3 °C kW−1 m−2) as solar radiation increased from 78 to 1098 W m−2. The difference between living and dead bees was reduced to 5.2 °C at 900 W m−2 GSK126 nmr radiation. At high Ta ( Fig. 6C; mean Ta = 34.2 °C) by contrast, the thorax temperature excess increased with radiation in both living and dead bees. In living bees it increased from 3.2 to 8.2 °C as solar radiation increased from 70 to 905 W m−2 Decitabine mw (6.0 °C kW−1 m−2), and in dead bees

from 1.4 to10.5 °C as radiation increased from 68 to 909 W m−2 (10.8 °C kW−1 m−2). At a radiation value of 900 W m−2 the thorax temperature excess of the living bees was by 2.4 °C lower than that of the dead bees. The thorax temperature excess (Tth − Ta) of our dead bees reveals the insects’ operative environmental temperature excess, integrating the heat gain from solar radiation minus the heat losses via radiation, external convection and evaporation. The difference between the living and the dead bees’ thorax temperature excess regression lines describes the active, endogenously generated part of the thoracic temperature excess. We here call it the ‘endothermic temperature excess’ (endothermic temperature elevation). In the same way curves for the head and the abdomen were calculated. Fig. 7A–C gives an overview of the endothermic temperature excess at six different ambient temperatures, when living and dead bees had been measured simultaneously.