Wainselboim A J, Roces F, Farina W M
Departamento de Fisiología, Biología Molecular y Celular, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Pabellón II, Ciudad Universitaria, (C1428EHA), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2003 Jan;189(1):39-45. doi: 10.1007/s00359-002-0373-z. Epub 2002 Dec 5.
When forager honeybees (Apis mellifera) return to the hive after a successful foraging trip, they unload the collected liquid to recipient hive mates through mouth-to-mouth contacts (trophallaxis). The speed at which the liquid is transferred (unloading rate) from donor to recipient is related to the profitability of the recently visited food source. Two main characteristics that define this profitability are the flow of solution delivered by the feeder and the time invested by the forager at the source (visit time). To investigate the effect of visit time on trophallactic behaviour, donor foragers were trained to a rate feeder that could deliver different flows of solution. We dissociated visit time and flow of solution by introducing pauses in the solution's deliverance at different moments of the foraging visit. We analysed whether timing of the non-deliverance period within the visit is important for the forager's assessment of resource profitability. During the subsequent trophallactic encounter with a hive mate, unloading rate was related to the total time invested by the forager at the food source only if the ingestion process had already been started. These results together with previous ones suggest that foragers integrate an overall flow rate of solution of the feeder throughout the entire foraging visit.
当觅食的蜜蜂（西方蜜蜂）成功完成一次觅食之旅返回蜂巢后，它们会通过口对口接触（交哺现象）将采集到的液体卸载给蜂巢中的同伴。液体从供体转移到受体的速度（卸载速率）与最近访问的食物源的盈利能力有关。定义这种盈利能力的两个主要特征是喂食器输送溶液的流速以及觅食者在食物源处投入的时间（访问时间）。为了研究访问时间对交哺行为的影响，对供体觅食者进行训练，使其适应能够输送不同流速溶液的速率喂食器。我们通过在觅食访问的不同时刻引入溶液输送暂停来分离访问时间和溶液流速。我们分析了访问期间非输送期的时间安排对于觅食者评估资源盈利能力是否重要。在随后与蜂巢同伴的交哺接触中，只有在摄入过程已经开始的情况下，卸载速率才与觅食者在食物源处投入的总时间有关。这些结果与之前的结果共同表明，觅食者在整个觅食访问过程中整合了喂食器溶液的总体流速。
