 Bees beat their wings about 200 times a second . Their thorax muscles do not contract on each nerve firing , but rather vibrate like a plucked rubber band . This is efficient , since it lets the system consisting of muscle and wing operate at its resonant frequency , leading to low energy consumption . Further , it is necessary , since insect motor nerves generally cannot fire 200 times per second . These types of muscles are called asynchronous muscles and are found in the insect wing systems in families such as Hymenoptera , Diptera , Coleoptera , and Hemiptera . Bumblebees must warm up their bodies considerably to get airborne at low ambient temperatures . Bumblebees have been known to reach an internal thoracic temperature of 30 ° C ( 86 ° F ) using this method . 
