Data from: Nutrition in extreme food specialists: an illustration using termites

1. Recent nutritional ecology theories predict that an organism feeding on a single, highly predictable food should lack the typical active regulation of nutrient balance observed in all other organisms studied so far. It could instead limit itself to controlling the amount of food eaten alone. Such an animal would however be strongly affected by nutrient imbalances. 2. Termites are an ideal model animal to test those predictions. 3. We investigated how the nutritional content of food affected termites’ intake and performance by constraining groups of Nasutitermes exitiosus to artificial diets varying in their macronutrient ratios. 4. We showed that (1) termites, contrary to other insects, did not compensate for nutrient imbalance by adjusting food collection (2) longevity in workers was strongly influenced by carbohydrate intake, while in soldiers it depended almost entirely on the number of workers remaining to feed them (3) tunnelling activity increased with the quantity of food collected and (4) intake had very little influence on lipid and protein termite body contents. 5. We provide evidence that extreme food specialists might have lost the ability to regulate macronutrient intake.1. 现代营养生态学（nutritional ecology）理论预测：以单一、高度可预测的食物为食的生物，应不具备迄今研究过的所有其他生物所共有的典型营养平衡主动调控能力。这类生物或许仅会局限于控制自身的摄食量，而非主动调控营养平衡，但其仍会显著受营养失衡的影响。2. 白蚁是验证上述预测的理想模式动物。3. 本研究通过将尖唇散白蚁（Nasutitermes exitiosus）种群限定饲喂宏营养素（macronutrient）比例各异的人工饲料，探究了食物营养组成对白蚁摄食行为与生存表现的影响。4. 本研究结果显示：(1) 与其他昆虫不同，白蚁无法通过调整食物采集量来弥补营养失衡；(2) 工蚁的寿命受碳水化合物摄入量的显著影响，而兵蚁的寿命则几乎完全取决于可供其取食的工蚁数量；(3) 隧道挖掘活动随食物采集量的增加而增强；(4) 摄食量对白蚁体内脂质与蛋白质的含量影响极小。5. 本研究为极端食性特化生物可能已丧失宏营养素摄入调控能力提供了实证依据。