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Lookup NU author(s): Viki Hurst, Professor Geraldine Wright
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).
To avoid poisoning and death when toxins are ingested, the body responds with a suite of physiological detoxification mechanisms accompanied by behaviours that in mammals often include vomiting, nausea, and lethargy. Few studies have characterised whether insects exhibit characteristic 'malaise-like' behaviours in response to intoxication. Here, we used the honeybee to investigate how intoxication produced by injection or ingestion with three toxins with different pharmacological modes of action quinine, amygdalin, and lithium chloride affected behaviour. We found that toxin-induced changes in behaviour were best characterised by more time spent grooming. Bees also had difficulty performing the righting reflex and exhibited specific toxin-induced behaviours such as abdomen dragging and curling up. The expression of these behaviours also depended on whether a toxin had been injected or ingested. When toxins were ingested, they were least 10 times less concentrated in the haemolymph than in the ingested food, suggesting that their absorption through the gut is strongly regulated. Our data show that bees exhibit changes in behaviour that are characteristic of 'malaise' and suggest that physiological signalling of toxicosis is accomplished by multiple post-ingestive pathways in animals.
Author(s): Hurst V, Stevenson PC, Wright GA
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Journal of Comparative Physiology
Year: 2014
Volume: 200
Issue: 10
Pages: 881-890
Print publication date: 01/10/2014
Online publication date: 23/08/2014
Acceptance date: 09/08/2014
Date deposited: 11/12/2014
ISSN (print): 0340-7594
ISSN (electronic): 1432-1351
Publisher: Springer
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00359-014-0932-0
DOI: 10.1007/s00359-014-0932-0
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