NUTRITIONAL EFFECTS OF SOME POLLEN TYPES ON HYPOPHARYNGEAL AND ACID GLANDS IN HONEYBEE WORKERS (APIS MELLIFERA L.)

Abstract

Pollen had a wide range of effects on honey bee. Caged honey bee workers were used to determine the nutritional effects of four main types of pollen collected by honey bee colonies from the study area on the food consumption rates, the development of the hypopharyngeal gland (HPG) acini and acid gland (AG) sacs in honey bee workers. Additionally, chemical analysis of the selected pollen types was performed. Pollen diets were as follows: broad bean pollen, date palm pollen, clover pollen, maize pollen and mixture of the for mentioned types beside the control pollen diet. The highest mean consumption was observed between 4th and 6th of day aged bees in all diets (23.05 mg./bee/3days). The highest quantity of food consumption was recorded in the 18th day when the workers were fed on date palm pollen (75.42 mg), while the lowest recorded 59.17 mg from maize pollen treatment. The highest mean acinal surface area of HPG was 0.0451mm2, which measured at 9 days-old of bees in all diets. While the workers fed on mixture pollen diet had the highest significant mean recorded the acinal surface area of HPG 0.0450mm2 comparing of 0.0223mm2 in control. The considering increment in average volume of acid gland sac with had been obtained at 18 days-old (0.7276mm3) that resembles the highest significant degree, the greatest mean volume of AG sacs was observed when bees were fed on broad bean pollen (0.6419mm3), while the lowest mean was 0.3643mm3 in control. Article information Received: 1 April 2021 Revised: 5 May 2021 Accepted: 11 May 2021