this is a somewhat mammal-centric point of view. "shivering" for us has all sort of bad connotations, of a last-ditch effort to be a little less cold when our other mechanisms are overwhelmed, say, when we're crouched in some freezing foxhole. But in the case of bumblebees this is quite a sophisticated mechanism. A fellow named Berndt Heinrich wrote a whole book on it, called "Bumblebee Economics". The bumblebees have a mechanism for detaching their flight muscles from their wings, and thus shivering the large flight muscles without moving the wings.
And, why should they try to stay warm all the time, as you are suggesting is somehow proper? Staying warm takes energy. It is actually more sophisticated to warm up just enough, at just the right time, as bumblebees do for their various bumblebee purposes. Even mammals do that sort of thing, viz., true hibernation.
Slashdot Mirror
this is a somewhat mammal-centric point of view. "shivering" for us has all sort of bad connotations, of a last-ditch effort to be a little less cold when our other mechanisms are overwhelmed, say, when we're crouched in some freezing foxhole. But in the case of bumblebees this is quite a sophisticated mechanism. A fellow named Berndt Heinrich wrote a whole book on it, called "Bumblebee Economics". The bumblebees have a mechanism for detaching their flight muscles from their wings, and thus shivering the large flight muscles without moving the wings.
And, why should they try to stay warm all the time, as you are suggesting is somehow proper? Staying warm takes energy. It is actually more sophisticated to warm up just enough, at just the right time, as bumblebees do for their various bumblebee purposes. Even mammals do that sort of thing, viz., true hibernation.