Collective behavioral responses to changing temperatures require effective reception and integration of both social and ecological information. To understand how collective thermoregulation occurs, it is critical to identify the physiological underpinnings of thermal reception leading to that behavior. Honey bees must maintain 34°C in their colony, or risk death of their developing brood. To cool their colony, honey bees fan their wings to circulate air. Fanning is a social behavior: single bees rarely fan, while groups of 10 bees fan more and at ideal temperatures. When honey bee groups can’t interact, they are less likely to fan. Highly conserved TRP channels are the most likely thermal sensory receptor in honey bees, however TRP channels have yet to be linked to thermoregulatory behavior. We used pharmacological treatments to enhance or inhibit TRP channel responses. We found that TRP channel antagonists inhibited the fanning response, while TRP channel agonists enhanced the fanning response. Out results provide a mechanism by which honey bees sense temperature, which will allow us to understand how bees integrate thermal and social information to thermoregulate effectively. This work provides fundamental insight into how thermal information is sensed in social groups during critical collective behavioral response.
