Falibene Agustina, Josens Roxana
Grupo de Estudio de Insectos Sociales, Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Experimental, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Ciudad Universitaria, Pab. II, 1428, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2008 May;194(5):491-500. doi: 10.1007/s00359-008-0323-5. Epub 2008 Mar 5.
Dynamics of fluid feeding has been deeply studied in insects. However, the ability to vary the nectar-intake rate depending only on the carbohydrate deprivation has been clearly demonstrated only in Camponotus mus ants. When insect morphometry and fluid properties remain constant, changes in intake rate could only be attributed to variations in sucking pump activity. Previous records of the electrical activity generated during feeding in C. mus have revealed two different signal patterns: the regular (RP, frequencies: 2-5 Hz) and the irregular (IP, frequencies: 7-12 Hz). This work studies the mechanism underlying food intake-rate modulation in ants by analysing whether these patterns are involved. Behaviour and electrical activity generated by ants at different starvation levels were analysed during feeding on sucrose solutions. Ants were able to modulate the intake rate for a variety of sucrose concentrations (10, 40 and 60%w/w). The IP only occurred for 60% of solutions and its presence did not affect the intake rate. However, during the RP generated under the starved state, we found frequencies up to 7.5 Hz. RP frequencies positively correlated with the intake-rate for all sucrose concentrations. Hence, intake-rate modulation according to sugar deprivation is mainly achieved by the ant's ability to vary the pumping frequency.
昆虫的液体取食动态已得到深入研究。然而，仅根据碳水化合物缺乏情况来改变花蜜摄取率的能力，仅在弓背蚁中得到了明确证明。当昆虫形态测量和液体特性保持恒定时，摄取率的变化只能归因于吸吮泵活动的变化。先前对弓背蚁取食过程中产生的电活动记录显示出两种不同的信号模式：规则模式（RP，频率：2 - 5赫兹）和不规则模式（IP，频率：7 - 12赫兹）。这项工作通过分析这些模式是否参与其中，研究了蚂蚁食物摄取率调节的潜在机制。在蚂蚁取食蔗糖溶液时，分析了不同饥饿水平下蚂蚁的行为和电活动。蚂蚁能够调节多种蔗糖浓度（10%、40%和60% w/w）的摄取率。IP仅在60%的溶液中出现，其出现并不影响摄取率。然而，在饥饿状态下产生的RP期间，我们发现频率高达7.5赫兹。对于所有蔗糖浓度，RP频率与摄取率呈正相关。因此，根据糖分缺乏情况调节摄取率主要是通过蚂蚁改变泵送频率的能力来实现的。
