Warming limits energetic investment in feeding and post-feeding metabolism in bumblebees

Abstract

Environmental warming is generally expected to increase metabolic demand in ectotherms. However, facultatively endothermic insects such as bumblebees regulate body temperature and may reduce thermogenic investment under warm conditions, potentially altering physiological performance and responses to climate change. We combined flow-through respirometry and infrared thermography to test how elevated ambient temperature (25 vs 35{degrees}C) affects feeding energetics and postprandial metabolism in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris. Bees maintained substantially lower thoracic temperature excess at 35{degrees}C than at 25{degrees}C, both before and during feeding. Feeding metabolic rate was also lower at 35{degrees}C and was strongly positively associated with thoracic temperature excess, indicating that feeding energetics were primarily explained by thermoregulatory state rather than ambient temperature alone. Elevated temperature reduced both the probability and energetic magnitude of specific dynamic action (SDA), including total SDA expenditure, early postprandial metabolism, and peak metabolic amplitude. In contrast, SDA duration and time to peak response showed little temperature dependence. Our results demonstrate that warming can suppress energetic expenditure in facultatively endothermic pollinators by limiting thermogenic investment and postprandial metabolic responses, potentially constraining the energetic flexibility underpinning foraging performance under climate warming.