The number of spermatozoa, length of testis, length of mucus gland and weights of drones were estimated in caged and free honeybee drones in relation to their ages. For this purpose, three Carniolan colonies were used as sources of drones and two were used as nursery colonies. The drones were held either in cages or freely in the queenless part of the nursery colonies. Measurements were carried out on samples of drones taken at 3‐day intervals from 1–3, 4–6, 7–9, 10–12 and 13–15 days old. While the number of spermatozoa in drone testes decreased in both caged and free drones as the drone age increased, it increased gradually in the seminal vesicles. The results also showed that weight of drones and length of testes decreased, but the length of the mucus gland did not significantly differ with age. Further, the drones' weight, length of mucus gland and total number of spermatozoa tend to be slightly larger in the caged than in free drones. The total number of spermatozoa in all parts of the reproductive organs was lower in the older than younger drones; thus, the number of spermatozoa in the newly emerged drones does not help to predict the real number reaching the queen during mating.
The activity of invertase, glucose oxidase and amylase in the cephalic (post‐cerebral) and thoracic salivary glands is determined in Egyptian and Carniolan honeybees (Apis mellifera L). For this purpose, three ages of worker bees are selected for enzyme assays. The results show that the three target enzymes are detected in the two glands during the three worker ages, except invertase, which cannot be detected in the cephalic gland of newly emerged bees of both subspecies. In both glands, the secretion of invertase is highest, followed by amylase and then glucose oxidase. In Carniolan bees, invertase secretion of the cephalic and thoracic glands increases gradually with age. In Egyptian bees, invertase increases with age only in the cephalic gland, whereas, in the thoracic gland, the highest secretion activity is detected in 10–15‐day‐old bees. The highest amounts of glucose oxidase and amylase in the cephalic gland are detected in newly emerged individuals of both Egyptian and Carniolan bees. In the thoracic gland, however, the highest activity of both enzymes is recorded only in newly emerged Egyptian bees. The results are discussed in the light of bee management and biological aspects of the two subspecies.
The presence of unusual wing venation and asymmetry of the forewing in Carniolan and Egyptian honeybees in Egypt were recorded. The present study indicates that, Carniolan bees had higher rate of unusual veins than the Egyptian bees. The frequency of adventitious veins was much higher than incomplete veins, and the marginal cell had the highest frequency of adventitious veins, and the first cubital cell had the lowest. The adventitious vein of the marginal cell characterized the Egyptian bees, whereas the adventitious vein of the third cubital cell characterized the Carniolan bees population. In the hind wing, the incomplete veins were absent, and only an extension of the medial vein appeared with higher frequency in Egyptian bees than in Carniolan bees. The left and right forewings of Egyptian bees are more homogenous than those of Carniolan bees. All wing coordinates exhibited significant fluctuating asymmetry in Carniolan bees, in comparison to 15 of 31 coordinates in Egyptian bees. With respect to directional asymmetry, 19 and 27 of 31 coordinates showed significant directional asymmetry in Carniolan bees from Manzala and New Valley respectively, but only 13 in Egyptian bees.
Abstract. The effects of three factors operating during pre-emergence development period on some characteristics of drones were studied. Weight of newly emerged drones, length of forewing, length of tibia, length of femur, length and width of basitarsus and number of spermatozoa in drones from colonies in which the workers had access to drone brood (A), the size of brood cells differed (B) or the colony had a queen or was queenless (C), were determined. For this purpose, 9 colonies were chosen at random from the test apiary and prepared so that each contained one empty Langstroth frame with six small sub-frames containing drone combs, three of which were used to test the effect of one level and the other three the other level of each factor. The results showed that, colony status had a greater effect on the parameters measured than either the size of the brood cells or whether the workers had access to sealed brood cells. Most of the parameters were significantly different in C, whereas only a few in B and non in A were significantly different. The distance between discriminant scores in each experiment enhanced the previous results, as it was highest in C, followed by B and then A. Optimal drone characteristics may be recorded for colonies in which the queens were induced to lay unfertilized eggs in newly built drone combs, and then removed and the drone brood reared in a queen less colony.
In this study, the activity of invertase, glucose oxidase and diastase enzymes in hypopharengeal gland were determined for Egyptian and Carniolan honeybees. Three colonies were chosen randomly from the population of each race for assaying the enzymes activity on three ages of worker bees: Newly emerged, 10-15 day old and foragers. The results show that the hypopharengeal gland expressed the three enzymes in different quantities in the three ages except invertase which could not be detected in newly emereged bees of Carniolan race. Generally, diastase is significantly more secreted than invertase and glucose oxidase, and the secretion of newly emerged bees is significantly less pronounced than in nurse and foraging age. The significant differences between the two races were obviously expressed in foragers for invertase and diastase enzyme, and in nurse bees for glucose oxidase in favor of Carniolan race, whereas the difference was significantly higher in newly emerged bees for Diastase and invertase in Egyptian bees. This result establishes different views of the secretion trend of the three enzymes in the two honeybee races, which may considered as racespecific characteristic.
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