Effects of erectable glossal hairs on a honeybee's nectar-drinking strategy

Yang, Heng; Wu, Jianing; Yan, Shaoze

doi:10.1063/1.4886115

Cited by 45 publications

(41 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…As a preliminary, the glossa was modeled as a simple slender cylinder and the fluid was entrained by the outer surface of the glossa (Kim et al 2011). Another model was presented in which the glossa was considered to be a hairy cylinder under the condition of viscous dipping (Yang et al 2014). The model developed by Yang et al suggests the hairs contributes to the nectar uploading but the erection angles in their model remains 90 deg.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeding Kinematics and Nectar Intake of the Honey Bee Tongue

Zhu

Liu

et al. 2016

J Insect Behav

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Most flower-visiting insects employ highly-evolved organs to feed themselves rapidly and efficiently on the floral nectar. A honey bee drives its segmented tongue (glossa) covered by dense hairs reciprocatingly to load nectar. A high-speed camera system ameliorated by a microscope revealed morphological changes in glossal surfaces during live honey bees' nectar dipping and surface configurations through the stretching of postmortem honey bees' glossae. Both the in vivo and postmortem observations reveal that shortening and lengthening of the glossal segments perform high concordance with the erection of glossal hairs, which aids in developing deformable gaps between rows of glossal hairs during nectar trapping. A model was proposed to evaluate the nectar-intake volume considering the experimentally-measured average erection angle and tongue elongation length during nectar feeding. The theoretical results fit the experimental data well and disclose that these two factors contribute to an augmentation of nectar-intake observably. We also theoretically present that the extendible and deformable glossae have advantages for the polylectic feeding behavior.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feeding Kinematics and Nectar Intake of the Honey Bee Tongue

Zhu

Liu

et al. 2016

J Insect Behav

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“…Moreover, there are 16-20 hairs on the apical part of each of the segments. Stiff and short hairs (32-63 micrometers long) are found on the basal part of the glossa, whereas those on the middle, as well as the apical parts are longer (171.9±0.3 micrometers long) (Yang et al, 2014). The spoon-like flabellum is found at the apex of glossa.…”

Section: Maxillolabial Structuresmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…As a preliminary, the proboscis was modeled as a simple slender cylinder and the fluid was entrained by the outer surface of the proboscis (Kim et al, 2011). Another model was presented in which the proboscis was considered to be a hairy cylinder under the condition of viscous dipping (Yang et al, 2014). The model developed by Yang et al (2014) suggests that the hairs contribute to the nectar uploading but the erection angles in their model remain at 90 deg.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impact of Soft Drink Feeding on Honeybee Mouth Parts Formation and the Effect of Supposed Malformation on the Quality of Gathering Nectar and Pollination

Edrees¹,

AL-Zahrani²,

Asiri³

2019

IJZI

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The morphological characters of honeybees were measured using a Scan Photo technique (SPT) that involves the use of a stereo binocular microscope and Photoshop program combined together. The body parts of a honeybee worker were scanned as images after they have been dissected. Photoshop program was used to view the images and their characters were measured using the ruler of the software program. While measuring the chosen morphometric characters, a significant difference was observed when the SPT and using a binocular microscope were compared. The measurements of 7 morphological characters of honeybee workers from nectar-feeding colonies were compared with those of Pepsi cola feeding colonies. There are more than 24 different subspecies of honeybees (Apis mellifera) classified based on their morphological characteristics. As a result, morphological characteristics are usually considered when classifying honeybees. Many authors for various reasons have used body morphological characteristics as well as sets of wings to classify subspecies of honeybees. Such characteristics have been defined overtime and sourced from diverse studies. Of all body morphological characteristics studied so far, wing venation characteristics have been given more attention. Up to now in Saudi Arabia, there are no specific review articles that focus mainly on Apis mellifera jemenitica body morphological characteristics. Consequently, information gathered from sampling and measurement methods, and factors affecting these characteristics especially mouthparts is to recognize the possibility of finding any changes in configuration as a result of feeding on soft drink. The morphology and functional anatomy of the mouthparts are examined by dissection, light microscopy, and supplemented by feeding type observations. This manuscript focuses on the differentiation of the proboscis which is formed by the glossa, in context with feeding from natural nectar and soft drink. In the literature, morphological innovations have been described for insects, particularly forbees.These innovations are critical for the production of differentiation in proboscis such as proboscis hair formation and modification. The present study showed that the proboscis of honeybees feeding on Pepsi is wider, thicker and very hairy compared to the natural feeding honeybee's proboscis. The morphological structures of the head, proboscis, hind leg, and wings were measured for the two groups of bees, the first naturally nourished with nectar, and the second feeding on the drink Pepsi Cola. The results showed significant differences in nectar and Pepsi feeding in different length measurements of head (

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“…In addition, a similar feeding mechanism might take place in other, more distantly related insect groups. The mouthparts of the nectar-feeding cricket Glomeremus orchidophilus Hugel et al (Gryllacrididae) [38] and the honeybee Apis mellifera L. (Apidae), for instance, might also involve the employment of capillary action [39][40][41], and exhibit a relationship between the sizes of spaces between their mouthpart structures and the sizes of substrate pores from which they can feed.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Mouthpart conduit sizes of fluid-feeding insects determine the ability to feed from pores

et al. 2017

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Fluid-feeding insects, such as butterflies, moths and flies (20% of all animal species), are faced with the common selection pressure of having to remove and feed on trace amounts of fluids from porous surfaces. Insects able to acquire fluids that are confined to pores during drought conditions would have an adaptive advantage and increased fitness over other individuals. Here, we performed feeding trials using solutions with magnetic nanoparticles to show that butterflies and flies have mouthparts adapted to pull liquids from porous surfaces using capillary action as the governing principle. In addition, the ability to feed on the liquids collected from pores depends on a relationship between the diameter of the mouthpart conduits and substrate pore size diameter; insects with mouthpart conduit diameters larger than the pores cannot successfully feed, thus there is a limiting substrate pore size from which each species can acquire liquids for fluid uptake. Given that natural selection independently favoured mouthpart architectures that support these methods of fluid uptake (Diptera and Lepidoptera share a common ancestor 280 Ma that had chewing mouthparts), we suggest that the convergence of this mechanism advocates this as an optimal strategy for pulling trace amounts of fluids from porous surfaces.

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Effects of erectable glossal hairs on a honeybee's nectar-drinking strategy

Cited by 45 publications

References 24 publications

Feeding Kinematics and Nectar Intake of the Honey Bee Tongue

Feeding Kinematics and Nectar Intake of the Honey Bee Tongue

Impact of Soft Drink Feeding on Honeybee Mouth Parts Formation and the Effect of Supposed Malformation on the Quality of Gathering Nectar and Pollination

Mouthpart conduit sizes of fluid-feeding insects determine the ability to feed from pores

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