Influence of natural pollen sources on the morphological parameters of honey bee, Apis mellifera L. sting apparatus

Abstract

Natural pollen feeding induces a wide range of morphological and anatomical changes in honey bees. The worker honey bee is used to determine the effect of the natural feeding of two different types of pollen collected by the honey bee upon the development of the stinger, venom sac length, and bee venom production. This experiment was carried out in 2022 during the period from May to August in two private apiaries, where honey bee colonies are fed naturally on pollen collected from clover plants. In the present experiment, it was assessed how different plant impact the stinger and venom sac length. The results clearly showed significant differences in the stinger and venom sac parameters between the workers fed on clover plants and those fed on clover for the clover plant pollen. The present study showed that bees fed on clover pollen have longer stingers than that fed on corn pollen, also venom sac length (t=5.987; p < 0.000), and venom sac width (t=9.205; p < 0.0001) for worker bees fed on clover pollen compared to worker bees fed on corn plant pollen, the same for other parameters which showed significant differences in the Stylet length (t=7.216; p < 0.0001), and the lancets length (t=7.216; p < 0.0001), barbs lancet length (t=9.205; p < 0.0001. These results indicated that the development of the stinger, venom sac parameters, and quantity of collected bee venom is extremely sensitive to the type of nutrients.