We examined the effects of sublethal doses of an organophosphorus insecticide, Methyl Parathion (MeP), on the foraging behaviour of honeybees (Apis mellifera ligustica) in a flight cage. The results revealed that MeP modified the frequency of visits to a feeding station to which the bees had previously been trained. A dose of 50 ng per animal elicited an increase in the frequency of visits to the feeder, compared to control animals. A dose of 10 ng, on the other hand, led initially to a decrease in the visit frequency, followed by an increase to a level above that of the controls. A hypothesis is presented to account for the way in which MeP affects foraging behaviour. We propose that the behavioural assay presented here could be useful as a preliminary screening test to study sublethal effects of pesticides on foraging performance in honeybees.

中文翻译：

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甲基对硫磷可改变蜜蜂（Apis mellifera）的觅食行为。

我们检查了亚致死剂量的有机磷杀虫剂甲基对硫磷（MeP）对飞行笼中蜜蜂（Apis mellifera ligustica）觅食行为的影响。结果表明，MeP修改了蜜蜂以前曾受训过的喂食站的探访频率。与对照动物相比，每只动物50 ng的剂量引起对饲养者的探访频率增加。另一方面，10 ng的剂量最初导致访视频率降低，然后增加至高于对照的水平。提出了一个假设以说明MeP影响觅食行为的方式。我们建议，此处介绍的行为分析可用作初步筛选测试，以研究农药对蜜蜂觅食性能的亚致死作用。