英和和英

出典:『Wikipedia』 (2011/05/13 18:09 UTC 版)

英語による解説

引用

Mass provisioning is a term used in entomology to refer to a form of parental behavior in which an adult (most commonly a hymenopteran such as a bee or wasp) stocks all of the food for each offspring in a small chamber (a "cell") prior to laying the egg. In such cases, the food is typically in the form of paralyzed or dead prey items (in predatory wasps), or masses of mixed pollen and nectar (in bees); only rarely are other sorts of food resources used (such as floral oils, leaves, dung, or carrion). The most well-known examples from outside the Hymenoptera are various lineages of dung beetles, which typically provision with either leaves or dung. Once the provisions are in place and the egg is laid, the cell is almost invariably sealed, to protect the developing brood (Wilson, E.O. 1971).