Functional response of the hypopharyngeal glands to a social parasitism challenge in Southern African honey bee subspecies

Hypopharyngeal gland (HPG) development in honey bee workers is primarily age-dependent and changes according to the tasks performed in the colony. HPG activity also depends on colony requirements and is flexible in relation to the need for feeding brood. Very little is known about HPG development in...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Parasitology research (1987) 2022, Vol.121 (1), p.267-274
Main Authors: Langlands, Zoë, du Rand, Esther E., Yusuf, Abdullahi A., Pirk, Christian W. W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Africa, Southern
Age
Animals
Apis mellifera
Bees
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Biomedicine
Colonies
Honeybee
Hypopharyngeal gland
Immunology
Immunology and Host-Parasite Interactions - Original Paper
Larva
Light microscopy
Medical Microbiology
Microbiology
Parasites
Parasitism
Pheromones
Workers (insect caste)
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Summary:Hypopharyngeal gland (HPG) development in honey bee workers is primarily age-dependent and changes according to the tasks performed in the colony. HPG activity also depends on colony requirements and is flexible in relation to the need for feeding brood. Very little is known about HPG development in the honey bee subspecies found in Southern Africa. We examined HPG development in Apis mellifera scutellata and A. m. capensis , including A. m. scutellata colonies infested with an invasive parasitic clonal lineage of A. m. capensis known to manipulate food provisioning to the parasitic larvae by their A.m . scutellata hosts, under natural in-hive conditions in bees aged 0 to 14 days using light microscopy. We found marked differences in acini size (berry-like clusters of secretory cells) and the age at which maximum HPG development occurred between the subspecies and in the presence of the parasite. In A. m. scutellata workers, acini reached maximum size at 6 days. The acini of A. m. capensis workers were larger (up to double) than those of A. m. scutellata and reached maximum size at 8 days, while the HPG acini in A. m. scutellata workers infested with A. m. capensis clones reached development sizes similar to those of A. m. capensis at day 10 and were 1.5 times larger than those of uninfested A. m. scutellata . This provides foundational insights into a functional response affecting the development of the HPG most likely associated with brood pheromone composition and how this is altered in the presence of a social parasite.
ISSN:0932-0113
1432-1955
DOI:10.1007/s00436-021-07391-6