Effect of some food additives on honey bee hypopharyngeal glands (Apis mellifera) in the south of Saudi Arabia
- Country : Egypt
- Subject : Zoology
Keywords : Acini, Apis mellifera, honey bee, hypopharyngeal gland
Abstract
This study illustrated the effects of selected Lamiaceae family plant extracts Lavandula coronopifola, Ocimum basilicum, Ocimum filamentosum, Orthosiphon thymiflorus, Otostegia fruticosa and Plectranthus asirensis on certain parameters telling the general condition of hypopharyngeal gland of honeybees Apis mellifera. In Apis mellifera workers the hypopharyngeal glands (HPGs) treated with diets containing food additives was matched to workers from the control honeybee colony treated with sugar syrup only. In the present research maximum length of hypopharyngeal gland acini (129 µm) for workers fed on diet-containing Lavandula coronopifola, followed by workers fed on Ocimum filamentosum diets (119µm), Ocimum basilicum (116µm) and no improvement for workers fed on Otostegia fruticose and Orthosiphon thymiflorus containing diets but there is negligible decrease in length of acini of workers bees fed on Plectranthus asirensis containing diet (105 µm) when compared with workers bees fed on sugar syrup only. The acini width in the worker colony's 12-day-old workers ranged from 87.2 to 102.9μm, and in bees of the same age in the control colony ranged from 100.8 to 158.2 µm. We observed that honey bee workers fed in these food additives (cell builders) had substantially greater diameter of acinar than workers in the equal age control colonies. The morphological and histological characteristics of HPGs in 12-days-old bee workers have been checked and noticed that food additives stimulated the growth of HPGs in breeding workers compared to workers feeding on sugar solution only. Furthermore, we described the channel diameter of HPGs in a bee worker and compared it to the control colony. The findings are evidence of that. It is clear that hypopharyngeal gland has the highest mean average canal diameter of (32.6 µm) was recorded for workers fed on the diet Lavandula coronopifola, followed by those fed on Ocimum filamentosum diets (31.59µm), Ocimum basilicum (28.53µm). At the other side, the of canal diameter of hypopharyngeal gland has not increased for workers fed at Otostegia fruticose and Orthosiphon thymiflorus containing diets but there is significant reduction in diameter of canal in workers bees fed on Plectranthus asirensis containing diet (10.48 µm) when compared with bees workers fed on sugar syrup (control). In general Lavandula coronopifola and Ocimum filamentosum substitute diets were superior to Ocimum basilicum and are recommended for addition to the diets of honeybee colonies.
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