Sofia Bouchebti

Ben-Gurion University of the Negev | bgu

Ethanol, a natural by-product of sugar fermentation, can be found in various fruits and nectar. Although many animals routinely consume ethanol in low concentrations as part of their natural diets, its inherent toxicity can cause severe damage. Even species particularly well adapted to ethanol consumption face detrimental effects when exposed to co...

Dietary fatty acids (FAs) are essential macronutrients affecting animal fitness, growth, and development. While the degree of saturation of FAs usually determines the level of absorption and allocation within the body, the utilization of dietary FAs across the life stages of individuals remains unknown. We used three different 13 C labeled FAs, wit...

Social wasps exhibit a unique nutritional cycle in which adults feed larvae with prey, and larvae provide adults with larval secretions (LS). LS serves as a vital nutritional source for adults, contributing to the colony’s health and reproductive success. The LS nutrient composition has been previously reported in various wasp species, yet these an...

The gut microbiota is intimately related to host wellbeing, in terms of physiology, immune function, and even social interactions. The strength of this relationship is dynamic, but the extent to which the microbiome is shaped by the identity of the host (nature) or its environment (nurture) remains largely unknown. Here we aimed to identify factors...

Pollen serves as a crucial source of protein and lipids for numerous insects. Despite the importance of pollen lipids for nutrient regulation in bees, the digestibility and absorption of different fatty acids (FAs) by bees remain poorly understood. We used 13C labeled fatty acids (FAs) to investigate the absorption and allocation of three common di...

Social insects employ a variety of active and passive mechanisms for nest thermoregulation. Many social wasp species exhibit a particular nest-architecture by building their nests with cells facing downward. By using thermal imaging to characterize the heat diffusion throughout Oriental hornet nests from different angular positions, we show that th...

Nutritional exchanges play a fundamental role in the evolution of animal societies. In higher animal societies, while adult individuals can be both food donors and receivers, the offspring usually only receive food from the adults. Hornets and wasps are fierce insect hunters that feed their larvae with prey. However, although the adults also consum...

Temperature and precipitation are major components of climate that have a pervasive effect on the phenotype and physiology of insects. The Oriental hornet has a wide geographical distribution and is the only vespid species found in a desert environment. Recently, it has extended its geographic distribution due to climate change and human activities...

Malnutrition in vertebrates, including humans, is known to affect brain development. Protein deprivation in the early stages of life dramatically impairs cognitive abilities. In insects, dietary protein deficiency influences several physiological and behavioural traits, but it is unknown how protein to carbohydrate (P:C) ratio simultaneously affect...

Adult wasps primary food resource is larval saliva. This liquid secretion consists mainly of amino acids and carbohydrates processed from the prey brought to the colony by the foragers. However, adults also regularly consume floral nectar. The nectar's most abundant proteinogenic amino acid is proline, and the two most abundant non-proteinogenic am...

Males of social Hymenoptera spend the first days following eclosion inside the nest before dispersing to find a young queen to mate with. During this period, they must acquire enough nutrients to enable their sexual maturation and store energy to sustain them through their nuptial journey. It was previously argued that adult hornets are unable to p...

Animal personality, defined by behavioral variations among individuals consistent over contexts or time, is shaped by genetic and environmental factors. Among these factors, nutrition can play an important role. The Geometric Framework of Nutrition has promoted a better understanding of the role of the macronutrient proportion in animal development...

Fatty acids (FA) are the primary metabolic fuel for many organisms and the fundamental component of membranes of all living organisms. FAs can be saturated (SFA), monounsaturated (MUFA), or polyunsaturated (PUFA). PUFA are not synthesized by most animals and are considered as essential nutrients. We examined the effect of climate on the saturation...

Oriental hornet (Vespa orientalis) foragers are strong, long-distance flyers exhibiting a high metabolic rate. Accordingly, they feed on carbohydrate-rich diets, such as floral nectar and larval secretions. These nutritional sources, in addition to carbohydrates, also contain free amino acids (AAs). Leucine, glycine, and proline are three common AA...

Insect lifestyles are extremely diversified and have important consequences for brain function. Lifestyle determines the resources and information that brains might access and also those that are required to produce adaptive behaviors. Most of the observed adaptations in brain morphology to variation in lifestyle are related to the first stages of...

Leaf cutting ants of the genus Atta build long lasting physical trails to exploit the vegetation around their nest. In this paper we investigated the dynamics of physical trail construction and usage in the leaf-cutting ant Atta laevigata. We assessed the average duration of physical trail construction in a pasture environment and estimated the imp...

One of the most important tasks of the brain is to learn and remember information associated with food. Studies in mice and Drosophila have shown that sugar rewards must be metabolisable to form lasting memories, but few other animals have been studied. Here, we trained adult, worker honeybees (Apis mellifera) in two olfactory tasks (massed and spa...

One of the most important tasks of the brain is to learn and remember information associated with food. Studies in mice and Drosophila have shown that sugar rewards must be metabolisable to form lasting memories, but few other animals have been studied. Here, we trained adult, worker honeybees (Apis mellifera) in two olfactory tasks (massed and spa...

High-protein diets shorten lifespan in many organisms. Is it because protein digestion is energetically costly or because the final products (the amino acids) are harmful? To answer this question while circumventing the lifehistory trade-off between reproduction and longevity, we fed sterile ant workers on diets based on whole proteins or free amin...

Many animals have evolved strategies to reduce risks of inbreeding and its deleterious effects on the progeny. In social arthropods, such as the eusocial ants and bees, inbreeding avoidance is typically achieved by the dispersal of breeders from their native colony. However studies in presocial insects suggest that kin discrimination during mate ch...

The objective of this study was to investigate the seasonal change in the pattern of foraging activity in the leaf-cutting ant Atta capiguara and to provide an estimate of the annual herbivory rate of its colonies. We surveyed at least once a month during 12 months, the foraging activity of two colonies located in a pasture of central Brazil. Each...

Lane segregation is rarely observed in animals that move in bidirectional flows. Consequently, these animals generally experience a high rate of head-on collisions during their journeys. Although these collisions have a cost (each collision induces a delay resulting in a decrease of individual speed), they could also have a benefit by promoting inf...

Atta laevigata and Atta capiguara are two species of leaf-cutting ants that are found in the pastures of Central Brazil and build huge underground nests linked to the outdoor environment by underground tunnels, which can reach several tens of meters and further extend through foraging trails to distant foraging grounds. The tunnels built by mature...