While some data support this hypothesis, the large variation observed in winter torpor behavior provides evidence that each sex exhibits diversity in their torpor behaviors. Furthermore, arousal from hibernation and energy savings while torpid are not only determined by sex. Frequency of arousals and torpid metabolic rates decrease with temperature, resulting in greater energy savings. Boyles and colleagues suggested that both sexes of little brown myotis select microclimates within caves for hibernation based upon their body condition, i.e. bats with less fat hibernating in colder regions to conserve energy. Thus, torpor patterns in free-ranging little brown myotis are influenced by the interaction of numerous variables, including sex, body condition, and environmental conditions. Because colder temperatures are conducive to greater energy savings for bats and are associated with slower fungal growth, we predicted that WNS mortality would be greater at higher temperatures. This was supported by our mortality and torpor duration results, the Ibrutinib latter of which found a significant interaction between Pd inoculation and temperature, and is consistent with population declines observed in little brown myotis hibernacula, where warmer hibernacula exhibited the largest declines. Similarly, we hypothesized fungal loads would be greater at 10uC, but contrary to our expectations, we did not detect differences in Pd loads between temperatures. Thus, Pd loads appear to be poor indicators of the severity of infection and WNS, as both mortality and frequency of arousals from hibernation increased at 10uC. It is important to note, however, that because 90% relative humidity was maintained in environmental chambers at both temperatures, the absolute humidity of the air was approximately 40% greater at 10uC. This difference in absolute humidity between temperatures could potentially result in different progressions of WNS, resulting in differences in the rates of evaporative water loss in bats or fungal invasion of the skin. Thus, the role of absolute humidity was unclear from our experiment. Regardless, the high variability in Pd loads detected at both temperatures highlights the variability in Pd growth on bats relative to growth patterns in culture. In free-ranging bats exposed to more variable initial Pd exposures than those used in our experiment, and inhabiting hibernacula with conditions that can fluctuate throughout the winter, change in fungal loads are likely to be even more variable. In addition to being more variable, exposure to Pd in free-ranging bats is likely to occur repeatedly during the winter, as bats move about within and among hibernacula. These dynamics of Pd spread are poorly understood, however, and more research in this area is needed. Also contrary to our prediction, we observed the greatest mortality and shortest torpor bouts in bats inoculated with the least concentrated solution of Pd conidia. This paradoxical result could be explained if lower concentrations of Pd grow differently than Pd at high densities. We hypothesize that Pd germination is inversely related to the density of conidia, resulting in more rapid fungal invasion and mortality in bats inoculated with 500 conidia.