School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Sun Yat-Sen University, Guangzhou, 510006, People's Republic of China.
Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), Nonlinear Physical Chemistry Unit, CP231, 1050, Brussels, Belgium.
Soft Matter. 2022 Aug 3;18(30):5568-5574. doi: 10.1039/d2sm00361a.
Animals have developed various drinking strategies in capturing liquid to feed or to stay hydrated. In contrast with most animals, honey bees that capture nectar with their tongue, can deliberately switch between sucking and lapping methods. They preferentially suck diluted nectar whereas they are prone to lap concentrated nectar. observations have shown that bees select the feeding method yielding the highest efficiency at a given sugar concentration. In this combined experimental and theoretical investigation, we propose two physical models for suction and lapping mode of capture that explain the transition between these two feeding strategy. The critical viscosity, *, at which the transition occurs, is derived from these models, and agrees well with measurements. The trade-off mechanism of honey bee sucking and lapping may further inspire microfluidics devices with higher capability of transporting liquids across a large range of viscosities.
动物在获取液体以进食或保持水分方面发展出了各种不同的饮水策略。与大多数动物不同，用舌头采集花蜜的蜜蜂可以在吸吮和舔舐之间有意识地切换。它们优先吸吮稀释的花蜜，而更容易舔食浓缩的花蜜。观察表明，蜜蜂会选择在给定糖浓度下效率最高的进食方式。在这项结合了实验和理论的研究中，我们提出了两种用于吸吮和舔舐采集模式的物理模型，用以解释这两种进食策略之间的转变。从这些模型中推导出了发生转变的临界粘性 *，并与测量值吻合良好。蜜蜂吸吮和舔舐之间的权衡机制可能会进一步启发微流控装置，使其具有在较大粘性范围内输送液体的更高能力。
