different types of glands in honey bee and their functions

1. Topic : Honey Bee Glands
• Family : Apidae
• Order: Hymenoptera
• seven members of
the genus Apis
• Apis cerana indica is
the indian honey bee
• It’s estimated that out of
90% of the world’s food,
bees pollinate 70%

2. Glands of honey bee worker
• DGld - Dufour's gland
HGld - head salivary glands
HfGld - hypopharyngeal glands
KGld - Koschevnikov glands
MdGld - mandibular glands
NGld - Nasonov gland
ThGld - thoracic salivary glands
VGld - venom gland
WxGld - wax glands

4. honey bee drones
• Drone mandibular glands are much smaller than
those of queens and workers and their size varies
according to age.
• The secretory activity increases from 0–3 days old
to a maximum at 7 days of age, while after 9 days
the glands were no longer active..

5. Glands of honey bee queen
• Dgld - Dufour's gland
KGld - Koschevnikov glands
MdGld - mandibular glands
TGld - tergal glands*
VGld - venom gland

7. Dufour's gland
• Dufour's gland (also called alkaline gland) occurs
only in females (queens and workers) and it is
absent in drones.
• It is an unpaired and unbranched epithelial sac
consists of a single layer of epithelial cells, which
luminal surface is covered by cuticle.
• At the surface of the gland there are muscles which
can be used to discharge the gland's secretion.

8. • Size of the Dufour's gland differs between queens and
workers .
• The gland length increases after start of egg lying by the
queen.
• Secretion of the Dufour's gland contains hydrocarbons and
esters.
• Queens produce much more of the secretion than workers
• Composition of the secretion can change after
insemination or onset of oviposition by the queen.
• the Dufour gland secretes compounds that are utilized in
defence by workers or reproduction in queens
• The Dufour's gland secretion is attractive to workers and can
be responsible for retinue formation around queens

9. • Dufour's gland is homologous with colleterial glands of other
insects. During development it is formed as invagination of the
ninth sternum .
• It is the egg marking pheromone
• It allows to discriminate between eggs of the queen and those of
the egg laying workers.
• The gland occurs in most Apocrita but its secretion and function
differs between species. In species other than honey bee it can
produce building material, larval food or pheromones

10. Hypopharyngeal glands
• Hypopharyngeal glands consist of a pair of long
glands coiled in the sides of the head.
• Each gland consists about 550 oval acini attached
to an axial collecting duct .
• It is covered inside with cuticle. The ducts open on
the suboral plate of hypopharynx
• The glands are most active in young bees, however,
they can be also developed in old workers if young
workers are absent, for example in queenless
colony .

12. • The hypopharyngeal glands are active only in workers which
have direct contact with brood .
• Secretion of the hypopharyngeal glands is rich in proteins.
The secretion of young workers is important component of
royal jelly .
• The secretion of older workers contains sucrose hydrolysis
enzymes including alpha-glucosidase, amylase, and glucose
oxidase .
• Activity of the glands depends on age of workers their food
and presence of larvae .

13. • Workers with developed hypopharyngeal glands
consume more pollen .
•
Hypopharyngeal glands are less developed in
workers starved, injected with juvenile hormone ,
poisoned with pesticides, carbon dioxide and other
anaesthetics

14. Mandibular glands
• Mandibular glands consist of a pair of saclike glands.
• Each of the glands is located inside head above the
base of mandible.
• The gland opens through a short duct at the base of the
mandible. Its secretion runs along shallow groove into
deeper channel surrounded by hairs.
• very large in queens, relatively large in workers and
small in drones.
• In workers secretion of the gland changes with age

16. Nasonov gland
• The Nasonov gland is exposed by:
• workers forming swarm cluster , young workers
returning from orientation flight ,
• foragers at a food source, returning foragers when they
have problem with finding the nest entrance
• Nasonov pheremone helps to orient the forager bees.
• They release them on flowers so other bees know to
which flowers have nectars.

18. • Nasanov gland occurs only in workers, not in
queens or drones.
Composition of the secretion changes with age of
workers and differs between winter and spring
• Synthetic Nasonov pheromone can be used to
attract swarms to swarm traps attract bees to crops
for pollination
• Associated wih tergum

19. • The salivary gland system comprises two pairs of
exocrine glands, one in the head (head salivary glands)
and one in the thorax (thoracic salivary gland).
• The glands are connected by common salivary duct to
salivary pocket (salivarium) at the base of labium.
• The head and thoracic glands differ in protein
expression .
• Salivary glands are well developed in queens and
workers; in drones they are small.
• Salivary glands of workers are more active when they
are foraging .
salivary gland system

20. HGld - head salivary gland
Res - reservoir of thoracic salivary gland
slDct - common salivary duct
ThGld - thoracic salivary gland

21. • Head salivary glands of queens become more
active when they start egg laying .
• In drones head salivary glands degenerate when
they become sexually mature .
• Head salivary glands produce oily secretion which
contains mixture of hydrocarbons .
• It was suggested that it is used to: soften wax and
lubricate mouthparts
• The head salivary glands can be a source of
cuticular hydrocarbons. The secretion can be added
to royal jelly

22. Venom gland
Venom gland and venom sack
(called also poison gland and
poison sack) of honey bee worker.

23. • The venom gland consists of a pair of long, slender,
convoluted tubules which float freely within the
hemolymph of the posterior part of the abdomen .
• Secretory cells occur along the length of the tubules,
their small ducts opening into a common, chitin-lined
duct.
• Each tubule ends with a small glandular
enlargement, and the two tubules unite in a short
common duct.
• The duct opens into the anterior end of the venom
sac
• The stinging apparatus is a modified ovipositor.

24. • The venom injected into the victim when a worker
stings is a mixture of toxic proteins and peptides,
the major component being a protein called
melittin(toxic) . Venom contains other compounds
such as
• Apimin: toxic peptide that damages nerve cells
• hyaluronidase, phospholipase , acid phosphatase
and histamine

25. • The poison sac walls have no muscles, and the venom
therefore is not expelled by contraction of the sac; it is
driven through the canal of the sting by the action of the
sting lancets and their valves
• The venom gland is present in both the worker and the
queen castes, but queens have significantly larger
glands than the workers and produce more venom.
Queens use venom during fights with other rival
queens, an event that occurs as soon as the imago
(mature adult stage) emerges, while fertilized queens
rarely use venom. by the time queens are one to two
years of age their venom has become essentially
inactive .
• Queen venom is more lethal toward other honey bees
than is worker venom.

26. • Wax glands are located on sternites 4, 5, 6 and 7. They
consist of modified epidermal cells.
• The cells are larger when the gland is active.
• The wax is secreted as liquid and it hardens forming a
wax scale.
• The wax scale is moved by hind leg to
mandibles. Production of 1 kg of wax requires
consumption 8.4 kg of honey.
• The wax glands are active only in workers who were
fed with pollen during first 5-6 days of their life
Wax glands

28. Koschenikov’s gland
• Located dorsally near the string shaft.
• Produces alarm pheromone
Contains more than 40 different compounds.
• Released by queen bee for the cluster of workers
around it
• Also released when a honey bee stings an animal to
attract other honey bees to attack as well

29. references
http://honeybee.drawwing.org/book/wax-
glands
Wikipedia

30. Thank you
Presented by:
Naincy Sharma
Id no. 2017002056