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Bees Prefer Flowers That Proffer¹ Nicotine²

We humans enjoy coffee and tea, to give our brains a caffeine boost. And bees sometimes sip³ nectar that naturally contains caffeine, which seems to enhance their memory. Now a study suggests that bees enjoy another familiar drug produced by plants: nicotine.

我们人类喜欢咖啡和茶，给我们的大脑增加咖啡因。蜜蜂有时会啜饮含有咖啡因的花蜜，这似乎增强了它们的记忆力。现在一项研究表明，蜜蜂享受植物产生的另一种常见的药物：尼古丁。

"As it turns out, not just in humans, but even the bees seem to have difficulties quitting." Lars Chittka, a professor of behavioral and sensory⁴ ecology at Queen Mary University of London. Chittka and his colleagues studied bumblebees as they visited fake flowers that contained varying levels of nicotine. Unnaturally⁵ high nicotine concentrations deterred⁶ the bees. But at real-world levels, the drug attracted bees. And they even learned a flower's color faster, if that flower offered a nicotine fix.

“事实上，不只是人类，但即使是蜜蜂似乎也有两难的时候。” Lars Chittka是玛丽女王伦敦大学行为和感觉生态学教授，当大黄蜂落在含有不同剂量的尼古丁的假花上时，Chittka和他的同事们对其进行了研究，高浓度的尼古丁使蜜蜂止步。但在现实情况下，药物会吸引蜜蜂。如果花能提供固定含量的尼古丁，它们还学会了更快地识别花的颜色。

Sometimes bees paid a steep price for this preference. "They returned actually to flowers that had previously⁷ sold them nicotine, so to speak, even if these flowers no longer contained nectar."

有时，蜜蜂为此付出了高昂的代价。“事实上，他们回到以前含有的尼古丁的花朵上，即使这些花不再含有花蜜。

Which might give nicotine-pushing plants, like tobacco, an edge. "It provides these plant species with an unfair advantage over competing plants, because they can retain the faithful services of pollinators, even if they're offering suboptimal nectar in this case." The results are in the journal Scientific Reports.

这可能推动含有尼古丁的植物生长，如烟草。“相比其他植物，蜜蜂给这些植物提供了不公平的竞争优势，因为它们可以是忠实的授粉者，即使在这种情况下，它们不能采到理想的花蜜，”研究结果发表在科学报告杂志上。

And if caffeine and nicotine have these effects on bees? Perhaps natural floral pharmacies⁸ stock other drugs too—that enhance pollination⁹, and give bees a buzz.

如果咖啡因和尼古丁对蜜蜂有这些影响?也许天然花卉药店也可以储存其他药物——如强化授粉功能和给蜜蜂嗡嗡的声响。