Simpson S J, James S, Simmonds M S, Blaney W M
Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, U.K.
Appetite. 1991 Oct;17(2):141-54. doi: 10.1016/0195-6663(91)90069-5.
Investigations into the behavioural and underlying physiological mechanisms of dietary selection are presented for the locust, Locusta migratoria. Locusts were fed for 4, 8 or 12 h on one of four chemically defined artificial diets: diet PC, which was nutritionally complete; diet P, containing no digestible carbohydrate; diet C, containing no protein; and diet O, which lacked both protein and digestible carbohydrate. Following this pretreatment, the locusts were provided with both the P and the C diet in a choice test. Detailed analyses of selection behaviour indicated that diets lacking a nutrient for which the insect was deficient were either rejected before a meal was initiated, or, if feeding commenced, eaten in meals of only short duration, while those containing the appropriate nutrients were accepted more readily and eaten in longer meals. Electrophysiological studies showed that this behaviour was paralleled by nutrient-specific changes in gustatory responsiveness. Locusts pretreated for 4h on C diet had increased gustatory responsiveness to stimulation with an amino acid mix, but not to sucrose, while insects fed on P diet showed increased responsiveness to stimulation with sucrose, but not to the amino acid mix. This result is consistent with earlier experiments in which levels of blood nutrients were shown to modulate taste responsiveness in the locust.
本文对飞蝗（Locusta migratoria）的饮食选择行为及其潜在生理机制进行了研究。将飞蝗分别用四种化学成分明确的人工饲料之一喂养4、8或12小时：营养全面的PC饲料；不含可消化碳水化合物的P饲料；不含蛋白质的C饲料；以及既缺乏蛋白质又缺乏可消化碳水化合物的O饲料。经过这种预处理后，在选择试验中为飞蝗提供P饲料和C饲料。对选择行为的详细分析表明，缺乏昆虫所缺乏营养成分的饲料，要么在开始进食前就被拒绝，要么如果开始进食，也只是短时间进食，而含有适当营养成分的饲料则更容易被接受，进食时间更长。电生理研究表明，这种行为与味觉反应中营养物质特异性的变化是平行的。用C饲料预处理4小时的飞蝗，对氨基酸混合物刺激的味觉反应增强，但对蔗糖刺激的反应没有增强，而用P饲料喂养的昆虫对蔗糖刺激的反应增强，但对氨基酸混合物的反应没有增强。这一结果与早期的实验一致，在早期实验中，血液中的营养水平被证明可以调节飞蝗的味觉反应。
