Mutual exchange of food between adults and larvae of certain social insects such as bees or wasps.
[TROPH(O)- + Greek allaxis, exchange (from allassein, to exchange , from allos, other).]
trophallaxis
Dictionary:
troph·al·lax·is (trŏf'ə-lăk'sĭs, trō'fə-)  |
n., pl., -lax·es (-lăk'sēz).
Mutual exchange of food between adults and larvae of certain social insects such as bees or wasps.
Mutual exchange of food between adults and larvae of certain social insects such as bees or wasps.
| 5min Related Video: trophallaxis |
| Wikipedia: Trophallaxis |
Trophallaxis is the transfer of food or other fluids among members of a community through mouth-to-mouth (stomodeal) or anus-to-mouth (proctodeal) feeding. It is most highly developed in social insects such as ants, termites, wasps and bees. The word was introduced by the entomologist William Morton Wheeler in 1918.[1] The behaviour was used in the past to support theories on the origin of sociality in insects.[2] The Swiss psychologist and entomologist August Forel also believed that food sharing was key to ant society and he used an illustration of it as the frontispiece for his book The Social World of the Ants Compared with that of Man.[3]
In ants, individual colony members store food in their crops and regularly exchange it with other colony members and larvae to form a sort of "communal stomach" for the colony. In termites and cockroaches,[4] proctodeal trophallaxis is crucial for replacing the gut endosymbionts that are lost after every molt. This should not be confused with coprophagia. Some vertebrates such as birds and wolves also feed their young through trophallaxis.
Trophallaxis serves as a means of communication, at least in bees and ants. In some species of ants, it may play a role in spreading the colony odour that identifies members.[5]
See also
References
- ^ Wheeler, W. M. 1918. A study of some ant larvae with a consideration of the origin and meaning of social habits among insects. Proc. Am. Phil. Soc., 57, 293-343.
- ^ Roubaud E (1916) Recherches biologiques sur les guepes solitaires et sociales d'Afrique. La genese de la vie sociale et l'evolution de l'instinct maternel chez les vespides. Ann Sci Nat 1:1-160
- ^ Sleigh, Charlotte (2002). Journal of History of the Behavioral Sciences 38 (2): 133–156. doi:.
- ^ Kitade, Osamu 2004. Comparison of Symbiotic Flagellate Faunae between Termites and a Wood-Feeding Cockroach of the Genus Cryptocercus. Microbes and Environments. 19(3):215-220 full text
- ^ Dahbi, A.;Hefetz, A. Cerda, X. and Lenoir, A. 1999. Trophallaxis mediates uniformity of colony odor in Cataglyphis iberica ants (Hymenoptera, Formicidae) Journal of insect behavior. 12(4):559-567 abstract
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
This entry is from Wikipedia, the leading user-contributed encyclopedia. It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer)
Learn More
 | Myzocytosis |
| Piscivore |
| Ovophagy |
Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:
Copyrights:
 |
 | Dictionary. The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. Read more |
 |
| Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Trophallaxis". Read more |
