Honey bees (Apis mellifera L. Hymeoptera: Apidae) use hydrogen peroxide (synthesized by excreted glucose oxidase) as an important component of social immunity. However, both tolerance of hydrogen peroxide and the production of glucose oxidase in honey is costly. Hydrogen peroxide may also be encountered by honey bees at high concentrations in nectar while foraging, however despite its presence both in their foraged and stored foods, it is unclear if and how bees monitor concentrations of, and their behavioral responses to, hydrogen peroxide. The costs of glucose oxidase production and the presence of hydrogen peroxide in both nectar and honey suggest hypotheses that honey bees preferentially forage on hydrogen peroxide supplemented feed syrups at certain concentrations, and avoid feed syrups supplemented with hydrogen peroxide at concentrations above some tolerance threshold. We test these hypotheses and find that, counter to expectation, honey bees avoid glucose solutions supplemented with field-relevant hydrogen peroxide concentrations and either avoid or don't differentiate supplemented sucrose solutions when given choice assays. This is despite honey bees showing high tolerance for hydrogen peroxide in feed solutions, with no elevated mortality until concentrations of hydrogen peroxide exceed 1% (v/v) in solution, with survival apparent even at concentrations up to 10%. The behavioral interaction of honey bees with hydrogen peroxide during both within-colony synthesis in honey and when foraging on nectar therefore likely relies on interactions with other indicator molecules, and maybe constrained evolutionarily in its plasticity, representing a constitutive immune mechanism.

中文翻译：

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蜜蜂 (Apis mellifera Hymenoptera: Apidae) 优先避免糖溶液补充了与现场相关的过氧化氢浓度，尽管耐受性限值很高。

蜜蜂（Apis mellifera L. Hymeoptera: Apidae）使用过氧化氢（由排泄的葡萄糖氧化酶合成）作为社会免疫​​的重要组成部分。然而，蜂蜜中对过氧化氢的耐受性和葡萄糖氧化酶的产生都是昂贵的。蜜蜂在觅食时也可能在花蜜中遇到高浓度的过氧化氢，但是尽管在它们的觅食和储存的食物中都存在过氧化氢，但尚不清楚蜜蜂是否以及如何监测过氧化氢的浓度及其对过氧化氢的行为反应。葡萄糖氧化酶生产的成本以及花蜜和蜂蜜中都存在过氧化氢表明，蜜蜂优先在特定浓度的过氧化氢补充饲料糖浆中觅食，避免添加浓度高于某些耐受阈值的过氧化氢的饲料糖浆。我们测试了这些假设，发现与预期相反，蜜蜂避免使用补充了与现场相关的过氧化氢浓度的葡萄糖溶液，并且在进行选择测定时避免或不区分补充的蔗糖溶液。尽管蜜蜂对饲料溶液中的过氧化氢表现出很高的耐受性，但直到溶液中过氧化氢浓度超过 1% (v/v) 时死亡率才会升高，即使在浓度高达 10% 时也能明显存活。因此，在蜂蜜的群体内合成和在花蜜上觅食时，蜜蜂与过氧化氢的行为相互作用可能依赖于与其他指示分子的相互作用，