Social Insects Research Group, Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, Private Bag X20, Hatfield 0028, South Africa
Institute of Biology, University of Graz, A-8010 Graz, Austria.
J Exp Biol. 2021 Jan 27;224(Pt 2):jeb234807. doi: 10.1242/jeb.234807.
The honeybee nest parasite (small hive beetle) uses behavioural mimicry to induce trophallactic feeding from its honeybee hosts. Small hive beetles are able to induce honeybee workers to share the carbohydrate-rich contents of their crops, but it is not clear whether the beetles are able to induce to workers to feed them the protein-rich hypopharyngeal glandular secretions fed to the queen, larvae and other nest mates. Protein is a limiting macronutrient in an insect's diet, essential for survival, growth and fecundity. Honeybees obtain protein from pollen, which is consumed and digested by nurse bees. They then distribute the protein to the rest of the colony in the form of hypopharyngeal gland secretions. Using C-phenylalanine as a qualitative marker for protein transfer, we show that small hive beetles successfully induce worker bees to feed them the protein-rich secretions of their hypopharyngeal glands during trophallaxis, and that females are more successful than males in inducing the transfer of these protein-rich secretions. Furthermore, behavioural observations demonstrated that female beetles do not preferentially interact with a specific age cohort of bees when soliciting food, but males tend to be more discriminant and avoid the more aggressive and active older bees.
蜂巢寄生虫（小型蜂虻）利用行为拟态来诱导其宿主蜜蜂进行蜜食。小型蜂虻能够诱导工蜂分享富含碳水化合物的蜜囊内容物，但尚不清楚它们是否能够诱导工蜂为其提供富含蛋白质的下咽腺分泌物，这些分泌物是喂给蜂王、幼虫和其他巢内同伴的。蛋白质是昆虫饮食中的一种重要的宏量营养素，对生存、生长和繁殖至关重要。蜜蜂通过花粉获取蛋白质，花粉被保育员蜜蜂消耗和消化，然后以下咽腺分泌物的形式分发给蚁群的其他成员。我们使用 C-苯丙氨酸作为蛋白质转移的定性标记，证明小型蜂虻在蜜食过程中成功地诱导工蜂为其提供富含蛋白质的下咽腺分泌物，并且雌蜂比雄蜂更成功地诱导这些富含蛋白质的分泌物的转移。此外，行为观察表明，雌性蜂虻在觅食时不会优先与特定年龄组的蜜蜂进行交互，而雄性蜂虻则更具辨别力，避免与更具攻击性和更活跃的老年蜜蜂接触。
