Skip Navigation



Journal of Electron Microscopy Advance Access published online on April 18, 2006
Journal of Electron Microscopy, doi:10.1093/jmicro/dfl002
This Article
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow All Versions of this Article:
55/1/41    most recent
dfl002v1
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Ishay, J. S.
Right arrow Articles by Bergman, D. J.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Ishay, J. S.
Right arrow Articles by Bergman, D. J.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Japanese Society of Microscopy. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org
Received November 16, 2005
Accepted February 3, 2006

Full-length: Biological

The thermogenic center in social wasps

Jacob S. Ishay 1 *, Marian Plotkin 1, Natalya Y. Ermakov 1, Stanislav Volynchik 1, Zahava Barkay 2, and David J. Bergman 3

1 Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel
2 Wolfson Applied Material Research Center, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel
3 School of Physics and Astronomy, Raymond and Beverly Sackler Faculty of Exact Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv 69978, Israel

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Jacob S. Ishay, E-mail: physio7{at}post.tau.ac.il


  Abstract

In the social wasps Vespa orientalis and Paravespula germanica (Hymenoptera, Vespinae), a thermogenic center has been found in the dorsal part of the first thoracic segment. The temperature in this region of the prothorax is higher by 6-9°C than that at the tip of the abdomen, and this in actively flying hornets outside the nest (workers, males or queens) as well as in hornets inside the nest that attend to the brood in the combs. On viewing the region from the outside, one discerns a canal or rather a fissure in the cuticle, which commences at the center of the dorsal surface of the prothorax and extends till the mesothorax. Thus the length of this canal or fissure is ~5-7 mm and it is seen to contain numerous thin hairs whose shape varies from that of the hairs alongside the structure. Beneath the cuticle in this region there are dorsoventral as well as longitudinal muscles in abundance, much the same as the musculature in the remaining thoracic segments (i.e. the meso- and metathorax), which activate the two pairs of wings. The canal-bearing segment is of course devoid of wings, and its dorsoventral muscles are attached to the cuticle, which in this region resembles a bowl harboring several layers of epithelium that boasts numerous butterfly-shaped tracheal branches. Additionally there are layers that display lymph-filled spaces and also perforated layers and depressions, and beneath all these is a lace-like layer that also coats the cuticle's hollows. Underneath the cuticle proper, there are numerous large mitochondria and tracheae, which occupy a considerable part of the cuticular epithelium surface. These abundant mitochondria are, most probably, the main element of heat production in the thermogenic center.

Keywords: social wasps; thermogenic center; temperature cascade; IR thermography; HR-SEM.
Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.