WHAT THE EVIDENCE SAYS
In vitro Bombus terrestris pupae exposed to cyclic 37°C or 38°C heat had lower emergence than the 34°C treatment, and surviving adults showed elevated post-emergence mortality and more deformities at the highest treatment. Effects therefore persisted beyond the developmental exposure window.
WHY IT MATTERS / OUR READ
Heat risk can carry across life stages. Monitoring only immediate survival during an extreme event can miss delayed demographic costs in pollinators and other insects.
CAVEATS / UNCERTAINTY
This is a controlled experiment on one model bumblebee species. The imposed thermal regimes simplify field conditions, and individual survival effects do not directly quantify colony- or population-level consequences.
SOURCE
Communications Biology
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