Honey bees have three castes, drones, workers, and queens, that accomplish different tasks. In this research, we revealed the divergence in feeding behavior of drones and workers by experimental and theoretical techniques from the perspective of tongue kinematics. We observed the feeding cycles from living drones and workers of Apis mellifera ligustica and introduced a fluid transport model for computing the energy consumption during nectar feeding. We derived the theoretically-optimal time apportionment ratios (TARs) in the tongue protraction and retraction phases of drones and workers under the objective function of maximizing the efficiency of nectar uptake. By comparing the theoretically-optimal TARs with the real ones, we drew a conclusion that there is a dichotomy in nectar-feeding behavior between drones and workers. The actual TAR of drones is not consistent with the theoretically-optimal TAR while the actual TAR of workers is. This dichotomy may be caused by caste-related labor and environmental constraints.

中文翻译：

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喂养蜜蜂无人机和工人的舌头伸展和收缩阶段的时间分配差异

蜜蜂有三​​个种姓，雄蜂、工蜂和蜂后，它们完成不同的任务。在这项研究中，我们从舌头运动学的角度通过实验和理论技术揭示了无人机和工人进食行为的差异。我们观察了活体雄蜂和意大利蜜蜂工蜂的摄食周期，并引入了一种流体运输模型来计算花蜜摄食过程中的能量消耗。我们在最大化花蜜摄取效率的目标函数下，推导出了无人机和工人舌头伸展和收回阶段的理论最佳时间分配比（TAR）。通过将理论上最佳的 TAR 与真实的 TAR 进行比较，我们得出结论，无人机和工人之间的花蜜喂养行为存在二分法。无人机的实际 TAR 与理论上的最佳 TAR 不一致，而工人的实际 TAR 是。这种二分法可能是由种姓相关的劳动力和环境限制造成的。