The honeybee continues to be developed as a model species in many research areas, including studies related to the effects of alcohol. Here, we investigate whether workers display one of the key features of alcoholism, namely withdrawal symptoms. We show that workers fed for a prolonged time on food spiked with ethanol, after discontinuation of access to such food, exhibited a marked increase in the consumption of ethanol and a slight increase in mortality. We additionally show that withdrawal symptoms do not include an increase in appetitiveness of ethanol diluted in water. Our results demonstrate that workers can develop alcohol dependence, which might be especially important in the natural setting of repeated exposure to ethanol in floral nectar and for their potential as a model of alcohol addiction.

蜜蜂在许多研究领域继续发展为模式物种，包括与酒精影响相关的研究。在这里，我们调查工人是否表现出酗酒的主要特征之一，即戒断症状。我们发现，长期食用掺有乙醇的食物的工人在停止获得此类食物后，乙醇消耗量显着增加，死亡率略有增加。我们还表明，戒断症状并不包括对用水稀释的乙醇的食欲增加。我们的研究结果表明，工人可能会产生酒精依赖，这在反复接触花蜜中的乙醇的自然环境中可能尤其重要，并且对于他们作为酒精成瘾模型的潜力而言可能尤其重要。