Talk:Trophallaxis

Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment

This article is or was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): AshlynGray. Peer reviewers: Epriscilla, Kyradsimms.

Above undated message substituted from Template:Dashboard.wikiedu.org assignment by PrimeBOT (talk) 11:45, 17 January 2022 (UTC)

proctodeal trophallaxis vs coprophagy

The article mentions that "proctodeal trophallaxis is crucial for replacing the gut endosymbionts that are lost after every molt. This should not be confused with coprophagia." - What is the distinction? The article on Coprophagy states that... "Coprophagy refers to many kinds of feces eating including eating feces of other species (heterospecifics), of other individuals (allocoprophagy), or its own (autocoprophagy), those once deposited or taken directly from the anus". Niubrad (talk) 05:37, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

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For a topic on "Trophallaxis", there seems to be exceeding information on dog behavior. How about placing that in a separate article?

Sources

• Olfactory learning by means of trophallaxis in Apis mellifera[
• Octopamine Reverses the Isolation-Induced Increase in Trophallaxis in the Carpenter Ant Camponotus Fellah

KP Botany 01:09, 9 July 2007 (UTC)

Dog behaviour

Removed on original research concerns:

Trophallaxis is also performed by members of the dog family. In the wild, a hunting dog will regurgitate food gorged while far from its lair in order to feed its puppies. These puppies lick the face of the adult in order to trigger trophallaxis. Domestic dogs are tame because of arrested development of their wild tendencies and will treat certain humans, in particular their owner, as lifelong 'parents'. Therefore, when a dog licks your face, it may be that he's manifesting a vestigial feeding instinct.

Please provide a source. This is conjecture and possibly fringe-theory like. Needs attribution and more careful wording. --ZayZayEM (talk) 05:19, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

New Sections

I believe this article would be improved with additional sections and information to describe the behaviour of trophallaxis in more detail. I would particularly like to add information regarding the physiology/ mechanisms of the behaviour, and emphasize the evolutionary significance of the behaviour. I plan to add the following sections: Evolutionary significance, Mechanisms, Trophallaxis in insects, and Trophallaxis in vertebrates. The information already present can be reorganized into the appropriate section (most can be included in the Trophallaxis in Insects section).I have complied a list of sources that will provide some of the information for these new sections. These include the following articles:

Suarez, M. E., & Throne, B. L. (2000). Rate, Amount, and Distribution Pattern of Alimentary Fluid Transfer via Trophallaxis in Three Species of Termites (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae, Termopsidae). Annals of the Entomological Society of America, 93(1),145-155. https://doi.org/10.1603 http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1603/0013-8746(2000)093%5B0145:RAADPO%5D2.0.CO%3B2/0013-8746(2000)093[0145:RAADPO]2.0.CO;2

Carter, G., & Wilkinson, G. (2013). Does food sharing in vampire bats demonstrate reciprocity?Communicative & Integrative Biology. 6(6), https://doi-org.qe2a-proxy.mun.ca/10.4161/cib.25783

Gil, M., & De Marco, R. J. (2005). Olfactory learning by means of trophallaxis in Apis mellifera. Journal of Experimental Biology, 208, 671-680. doi: 10.1242/jeb.01474

Suryanarayanan, S., & Jeanne, R. L. (2008). Antennal Drumming, Tophallaxis and Colony Development in the Social Wasp Polistes fascatus (Hymenoptera: Vespidae). Ethology, 114, 1201–1209. doi:10.1111/j.1439-0310.2008.01561.x

Hamilton, C., Lejeune, B. T., & Rosengaus, R. B. (2011). Trophallaxis and prophylaxis: social immunity in the carpenter ant Camponotus pennsylvanicus. Biology Letters, 7(1), 89–92. http://doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2010.0466

AshlynGray (talk) 12:39, 9 February 2018 (UTC)

New citations

There have been a handful of research papers over the past 10 years on this topic. I am an expert on the topic and so I have added several. Some are from my group, some are not. The papers I have added are well cited and published in reputable journals. Many of them also generated media attention, so it seems reasonable to include them here.

Not updating this page to include the well-cited current state of knowledge would feel inappropriate (this is what prompted me to edit).

Dradri (talk) 19:53, 8 September 2025 (UTC)

Already done , looks decent to me, although noting that the point of an edit request is to request before you edit ;). In the future, it would also be helpful if you disclosed which sources specifically you have a COI with. Cheers, GoldRomean (talk) 22:51, 8 October 2025 (UTC)