SUMMARYFew years ago, considerable progress has been made to explain the disappearance of bee colonies, including correct identification of pests involved and the search for more effective and healthy alternatives to protect them. Indeed, our work is based on the isolation, characterization and identification of entomopathogenic bacterial strains of the genus Bacillus from larvae of wax moth Galleria mellonela reared in the laboratory, with a preliminary study of the use of these entomopathogenic bacteria on the larvae (L5) of G. mellonella under controlled conditions. In fact, 9 bacterial strains of the genus Bacillus have been isolated. They are spore forming bacteria, Gram, catalase and oxidase positive and present variable responses to the gelatinase test, lecitinase, caseinase, culture in anaerobiosis and growth at different temperatures (45 ° C., 55 ° C., 65 ° C.). From our study, we also find that the strain S4, probably identified as Bacillus thuringiensis, has a better effect on the larvae of Galleria mellonella. It caused very remarkable symptoms and mortality rates that vary depending on the strain and bacterial concentration tested and the mode of application. Injection of strain S4 for individuals resulted mortality of 83.33%, 75% and 50%, respectively, after treatment with high, medium and low concentration after only 3 days. The comparative examination of the hemolymph test results shows that the injection of the bacteria into the larvae resulted in a significant increase in hemolymph protein and carbohydrate content as compared to controls.
Worldwide, honey bees are increasingly faced with periods of pollen scarcity, which can lead to nutritional deficiencies, especially of proteins and amino acids. These are essential for the proper functioning of the single organism and the colony. To understand how bees react to protein deficiency, under controlled conditions, we studied the effect of pollen deficiency on the main physiological parameters in two subspecies endemic of Algeria, Apis mellifera intermissa and Apismellifera sahariensis. Emerging workers of both subspecies were reared with two diets: one was pollen-fed, whereas the other pollen-deprived. Several physiological criteria were measured depending on the type of diet and subspecies: the survival of the bees, the amount of total protein in the hemolymph, hypopharyngeal glands development and the ovary development of workers. These last three parameters were assessed at three different ages (7, 14 and 21 days). At birth, sahariensis workers weighed more than intermissa. With the same protein diet, the average life expectancy of sahariensis was extended by 5.55 days compared to intermissa. Even if deprived of pollen, sahariensis lived longer than intermissa fed with pollen (p < 0.001). In the three age levels, the hypopharyngeal glands were more developed and less affected by pollen deficiency (p < 0.001) in sahariensis than in intermissa (p < 0.001). The total hemolymph protein was higher in intermissa than in sahariensis regardless of the diet, and was also higher in protein-fed than in deprived bees (p < 0.001). The ovaries developed more rapidly with a high proportion in intermissa than in sahariensis (p < 0.05) regardless of the diet, and was also higher in the bees fed with pollen than those deprived (p < 0.05). Pollen deficiency generates physiological alterations and modifications, the amplitude of which varied according to the subspecies of the bee studied.
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