Sucking or lapping: facultative feeding mechanisms in honeybees (Apis mellifera)
Sucking or lapping: facultative feeding mechanisms in honeybees (Apis mellifera)
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DOI：
10.1098/rsbl.2020.0449
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发表时间：
2020-08
期刊：
影响因子：
3.3
通讯作者：
Jiangkun Wei;Zixin Huo;S. Gorb;A. Rico-Guevara;Zhigang Wu;Jianing Wu
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Jiangkun Wei;Zixin Huo;S. Gorb;A. Rico-Guevara;Zhigang Wu;Jianing Wu
蜜源昆虫一般采用吸蜜或舔食的方式从花中吸取花蜜，并且认为每种昆虫都表现出一种特定的取食模式。在最近的文献中，大群的食蜜动物被归类为“吸食动物”，通过它们的喙吸取花蜜，或“舔食动物”，使用粘性浸渍。蜜蜂（Apis mellifera）是著名的舔手，因为它们有毛茸茸的舌头。令人惊讶的是，我们发现蜜蜂在吸食低粘度花蜜时也会使用主动吸力，这与它们被归类为舔蜜者的情况不符。进一步的实验表明，当摄入低浓度花蜜时，抽吸产生较高的吸收速率，而当摄入含糖量较高的花蜜时，研磨导致更快的吸收。我们发现，蜜蜂的最佳浓度吸模式与其他典型的吸食器计算的一个一致。此外，我们发现行为的灵活性在饮用模式：蜜蜂能够切换之间的舔和吸时，提供不同的花蜜浓度。蜜蜂的这种意志转换可以增强它们的进食能力，使它们能够有效地利用花蜜中的各种浓度，增强它们对各种能源的适应性。
Nectarivorous insects generally adopt suction or lapping to extract nectar from flowers and it is believed that each species exhibits one specific feeding pattern. In recent literature, large groups of nectarivores are classified as either ‘suction feeders', imbibing nectar through their proboscis, or ‘lappers', using viscous dipping. Honeybees (Apis mellifera) are the well-known lappers by virtue of their hairy tongues. Surprisingly, we found that honeybees also employ active suction when feeding on nectar with low viscosity, defying their classification as lappers. Further experiments showed that suction yielded higher uptake rates when ingesting low-concentration nectar, while lapping resulted in faster uptake when ingesting nectar with higher sugar content. We found that the optimal concentration of suction mode in honeybees coincided with the one calculated for other typical suction feeders. Moreover, we found behavioural flexibility in the drinking mode: a bee is able to switch between lapping and suction when offered different nectar concentrations. Such volitional switching in bees can enhance their feeding capabilities, allowing them to efficiently exploit the variety of concentrations presented in floral nectars, enhancing their adaptability to a wide range of energy sources.