大黄蜂竟然喜欢杀虫剂

研究发现，当大黄蜂接触含有杀虫剂的食物越多，他们就越离不开这个味道，这可能是上瘾的征兆。

This study of bumblebee behaviour indicates that the risk of pesticide-contaminated food entering bee colonies may be higher than previously thought, which can have impacts on colony reproductive success.

这项与大黄蜂行为有关的研究表明，蜂群中，受杀虫剂污染的食物所带来的风险，可能更甚于之前的设想，甚至是对蜂群繁殖成功率产生重大影响。

In research published today in Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a team from Imperial College London and Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) have shown that bumblebee colonies increasingly feed on pesticide-laced food (sugar solution) over time.

伦敦帝国理工学院(Imperial College London)和伦敦大学玛丽皇后大学(Queen Mary University of London)组成了一个研究小组，该小组已经将研究结果发表在《Proceedings of the Royal Society B》上。结果表明，随着时间的推移，大黄蜂群体日益依赖含有杀虫剂的食物(糖溶液)。

The researchers tested the controversial class of pesticides the 'neonicotinoids', which are currently one of the most widely used classes of pesticides worldwide, despite the near-total ban in the EU. The impact of neonicotinoids on bees is hotly debated, and the ban is a decision that has received mixed views.

研究人员测试了广受争议的农药"新烟碱"。尽管欧盟几乎完全禁止了新烟碱的使用，但它却是目前世界上使用最广泛的杀虫剂之一。人们就新烟碱对蜜蜂的影响进行了激烈的争论，对这项禁令也是意见不一。

Lead researcher Dr. Richard Gill, from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial, said: "Given a choice, naïve bees appear to avoid neonicotinoid-treated food. However, as individual bees increasingly experience the treated food they develop a preference for it.

生命科学系的首席研究员理查德 · 吉尔博士说:"在蜜蜂可以自主选择的情况下，是可以避免接触到含有新烟碱的食物的。然而，随着蜜蜂越来越多地尝到‘新烟碱’的甜头，它们也变得越来越喜欢这种食物了。“

"Interestingly, neonicotinoids target nerve receptors in insects that are similar to receptors targeted by nicotine in mammals. Our findings that bumblebees acquire a taste for neonicotinoids ticks certain symptoms of addictive behaviour, which is intriguing given the addictive properties of nicotine on humans, although more research is needed to determine this in bees."

”有趣的是，新烟碱是对昆虫的神经受体起作用，这类似于尼古丁对哺乳动物中的靶向受体的影响。我们的研究结果表明，大黄蜂对新烟碱有一定的嗜好。这就有点意思了，因为人们也对尼古丁上瘾，不过我们需要进一步研究，以确定蜜蜂中的这种成瘾行为。”

The team tracked ten bumblebee colonies over ten days, giving each colony access to its own foraging arena in which bees could choose feeders that did or did not contain a neonicotinoid.

研究小组对10个大黄蜂蜂群进行了十天的跟踪调查。每个蜂群都可以自由进出自己的觅食场所，在这里蜜蜂可以选择含有或不含新烟碱的喂食器。

They found that while the bees preferred the pesticide-free food to begin with, over time they fed on the pesticide-laced food more and visited the pesticide-free food less. They continued to prefer the pesticide-laced food even when the positions of the feeders were changed, suggesting they can detect the pesticide inside the food.

他们发现，虽然蜜蜂最初喜欢无杀虫剂的食物，但随着时间的推移，它们食用含有杀虫剂的食物更多了，并且吃无杀虫剂食物的次数越来越少。即使喂食器的位置发生变化，他们仍然更喜欢含有杀虫剂的食物，这表明它们可以检测到食物中的杀虫剂。

Lead author Dr. Andres Arce, from the Department of Life Sciences at Imperial, said: "Many studies on neonicotinoids feed bees exclusively with pesticide-laden food, but in reality, wild bees have a choice of where to feed. We wanted to know if the bees could detect the pesticides and eventually learn to avoid them by feeding on the uncontaminated food we were offering.

主要作者安德烈斯 · 阿尔斯博士说:"许多关于新烟碱的研究仅仅是用含有杀虫剂的食物喂养蜜蜂，但他们忽略了，野生蜜蜂是自己可以选择觅食地点的。我们想知道蜜蜂是否能够检测出杀虫剂，并在吃了我们提供的没有杀虫剂的食物后，能否学会不再吃那些含有新烟碱的食物了。”

"Whilst at first it appeared that the bees did avoid the food containing the pesticide, we found that over time the bumblebees increased their visits to pesticide-laden food. We now need to conduct further studies to try and understand the mechanism behind why they acquire this preference."

“起初看来，蜜蜂确实避开了含有杀虫剂的食物，但我们发现，慢慢地，大黄蜂吃含有杀虫剂的食物更多了。但我们现在需要进行进一步的研究，以试图理解他们有这种偏好的原因。”

Dr. Gill added: "This research expands on important previous work by groups at Newcastle and Dublin Universities. Here, we added a time dimension and allowed the bees to carry out more normal foraging behaviour, to understand the dynamics of pesticide preference. Together these studies allow us to properly assess the risks of exposure and not just the hazard posed.

吉尔博士补充说:"这项研究是对纽卡斯尔和都柏林大学之前的重要研究成果的扩充。本次实验中，我们增加了时间维度，并且允许蜜蜂进行更正常的觅食行为，以动态地了解它们的偏好。所有这些研究使我们能够不失偏颇地评估接触的风险，而不仅仅只关注造成的危害。”

"Whilst neonicotinoids are controversial, if the effects of replacements on non-target insects are not understood, then I believe it is sensible that we take advantage of current knowledge and further studies to provide guidance for using neonicotinoids more responsibly, rather than necessarily an outright ban."

“虽然新烟碱的使用颇具争议，但如果目前我们还不清楚它对其非目标群体的影响，那么我认为，我们可以利用目前的知识，进一步研究，为更负责任地使用新烟碱素提供导向，而不是彻底禁用它。”