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Abstract Diapause survival and post‐diapause performance (i.e., if a queen starts to lay eggs) of in total 2210 bumblebee queens ( Bombus terrestris ) were measured under different diapause regimes: 5 temperatures (−5, 0, 5, 10 and 15 °C) in combination with 5 durations of exposure (1, 2, 4, 6 and 8 months). The results show that weight at the start of diapause determines to a large extent whether a queen will be able to survive diapause. Queens with a wet weight below 0.6 g prior to diapause did not survive, but for those queens exceeding this threshold a higher pre‐ diapause weight did not increase their post‐diapause performance. There was no effect of temperature on diapause survival; 76% of the variance in survival could be explained by the duration of the treatment. Neither temperature nor duration of exposure had an effect on post‐diapause performance. The preoviposition period of the queens that laid eggs was also determined. The preoviposition period was affected by both temperature and duration of exposure: the preoviposition period decreased with decreasing temperature but also with increasing duration of the treatment.
Beekman et al. (Tue,) studied this question.