Ultrastructure Studies of Antennal Sensor Organs of Drones: Egyptian Honeybee vs Carniolan Honeybee

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Faculty of Science, Assiut University, New Valley Branch, Egypt

2 Apiculture Department, Plant Protection Research Institute, ARC, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.

Abstract

This study compared the ultrastructure of some sensor organs on the drone's antennae of Egyptian, Apis mellifera lamarckii, bees to that of Carniolan, A. m. carnica, bees. The following characteristics were compared: antennal length; number and measurements of different sensilla was studied using scanning electron microscopy. A highly significant difference was observed between the antennal length of Egyptian and Carniolan honeybee drones, with means of 3.746 ± 0.081 mm. and 4.248 ± 0.126 mm, respectively. Obtained data revealed that there were significant differences in the number of different sensilla between the two tested honeybee populations. Also, the same trend was noticed for the measurements of the tested sensor organs. It can concluded that, the highest numbers of the different sensilla appeared, is due to their important functions for honeybee social organization.

Keywords