猎物体温差异对短尾蝮捕食注毒量影响

Influence of Prey Temperature on Venom Expenditure of Gloydius brevicaudus in Predatory Bite

毒液在毒蛇捕食行为中是重要且有限的资源,对不同状态的猎物进行差异化的毒液输出(毒液衡量)于毒蛇具有适应意义。蝮亚科Crotalinae蛇类具备感知热信号的红外系统,能对猎物体温进行差异化识别。毒液系统与红外系统均主要用于蝮亚科蛇类的捕食行为中,但2套系统间的互作却研究较少。实验使用化冻乳鼠作为猎物,将不同温度的乳鼠提供给7条短尾蝮Gloydius brevicaudus进行捕食,记录分析其捕食行为与毒液输出量,探究猎物体温对短尾蝮捕食行为的影响。结果表明,短尾蝮对不同温度的乳鼠表现出较为正常且相似的捕食行为,注毒量不受猎物体温的影响,但与个体体型存在显著相关性。研究认为,在捕食小型哺乳类猎物的行为中,短尾蝮不会根据猎物体温差异调整排毒量。

For venomous snakes,venom is a limited and precious resource in hunting behaviors.Thus,venom metering during venom expenditure poses adaptive advantages.Pit vipers are a group of venomous snakes that possess highly sensitive infrared organs to locate their prey.Both the venom system and infrared system function primarily for hunting,however,little is known for their interaction in the predatory contexts.This study investigated the correlation of infrared information and venom amount injected by Gloydius brevicaudus in hunting behavior.Neonatal mice with different body temperatures were provided to 7 G.brevicaudus for predatory bite,and then the injected venom amount was compared using Kruskal-Wallis One-Way Analysis of Variance.The results showed that G.brevicaudus displayed relatively normal and similar predatory behaviors to neonatal mice with different body temperatures.The injected venom amount was not influenced by the body temperature of prey,but significantly correlated with snake size.In conclusion,G.brevicaudus may be not capable of adjusting their venom amount used in predatory bites according to the prey temperature.