Effect of different nutritional diets on hypopharyngeal glands growth in nurse honey bees

Abstract

Hypopharyngeal glands (HGs) are one of the most important body organs of nurse honey bees which produce the major protein fraction of royal jelly that is fed to larvae and queen. The HGs mass and acini size can be considered as robust indicator that is used to determine the quality of the diets fed to nurse bees. In the present study we focused on the effect of different nutritional diets on HGs growth and acini size in nurse honey bee workers. Results of ANOVA indicated that the test diets have a significant effect on HGs mass and their acini size.

Keywords

• nurse bee
• nutritional diet
• hypopharyngeal glands mass
• acini size