Nicolson Susan W, Human Hannelie
Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Pretoria 0002, Republic of South Africa.
Biol Lett. 2008 Jun 23;4(3):299-301. doi: 10.1098/rsbl.2008.0034.
Nectar concentration is assumed to remain constant during transport by honeybees between flowers and hive. We sampled crop contents of nectar foragers on Aloe greatheadii var. davyana, a major winter bee plant in South Africa. The nectar is dilute (approx. 20% w/w), but the crop contents of bees captured on flowers are significantly more concentrated. In returning foragers, the concentration increases further to 38-40%, accompanied by a volume decrease. The doubling of sugar concentration suggests that nectar is regurgitated onto the tongue and evaporated during foraging and on the return flight. Processing of the dilute nectar into honey thus begins early, aided by low ambient humidities. This has implications for honeybee thermoregulation, water balance and energetics during foraging, and for the communication of nectar quality to recruits.
花蜜浓度在蜜蜂在花朵与蜂巢之间运输过程中被假定保持恒定。我们对南非主要的冬季蜜源植物巨芦荟上的采蜜工蜂的嗉囊内容物进行了采样。花蜜是稀释的（约20%重量/重量），但在花朵上捕获的蜜蜂的嗉囊内容物浓度显著更高。在返回的觅食工蜂中，浓度进一步增加到38 - 40%，同时体积减小。糖分浓度翻倍表明花蜜在觅食和返程飞行期间被反刍到舌头上并蒸发。因此，在低环境湿度的帮助下，稀释花蜜转化为蜂蜜的过程很早就开始了。这对蜜蜂觅食期间的体温调节、水平衡和能量学，以及向新招募蜜蜂传达花蜜质量都有影响。
