High-speed video reveals how honey bee stingers pump venom
摘要
科学家通过高速视频研究蜜蜂螫针的排毒机制，发现蜜蜂飞离后，留下的螫针仍能继续向目标组织注入毒液。研究显示，蜜蜂螫针由三部分互锁结构组成，包括形成主泵腔的针状体和两根可前后滑动的刺针，构成独特的双活塞泵式机制。该发现发表于《美国国家科学院院刊》，首次直接观测到螫针自主泵毒的精确过程。
Honey bees are known to leave their stingers embedded in tender flesh once they sting you and fly away. Scientists have now determined that the stinger is able to continue pumping venom into its unfortunate victim even after the bee flies away, thanks to a unique double-piston pump-like mechanism, according to a new paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Different species have evolved different mechanisms for delivering venom, which involves piercing the skin and then pumping venom from a gland or reservoir. Spiders, for instance, have muscles surrounding their venom glands, which contract and eject venom through hollow fangs. Bees, wasps, and ants deliver venom via their stingers, either by contracting muscles around the venom reservoir or through stiff elements called lancets working together to pump venom.
Honey bees (Apis mellifera) add a unique feature: Worker bees fly away after inserting their stingers in the target, leaving the stinger behind. The stinger continues to penetrate the tissue and pump venom on its own, a rare phenomenon known as autotomy. A honey bee's stinger has three main interlocking elements that form the venom canal: a stylet that widens to form the main pumping chamber and two sharp-tipped lancets that slide back and forth, piercing the tissue and pumping venom into the target. But the precise mechanism by which the pumping action is achieved has never been directly observed.
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