The effects of four crop protection products on the morphology and ultrastructure of the hypopharyngeal gland of the European honeybee, Apis mellifera

Kevin Heylen , Bruno Gobin , Lutgarde Arckens , Roger Huybrechts , Johan Billen

This study describes the impact of sublethal doses of 4 pesticides on size and morphology of the honeybee worker's hypopharyngeal glands. This gland plays an essential role in brood care by young workers, and thus colony growth. Contaminating 7 day old caged bees, we sampled after 1 day and 1 week for Captan-, Imidacloprid- and Indoxacarb-treated bees and after 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 7 days for Fenoxycarb-treated bees. The glands' acini 1 week post-treatment were all significantly smaller in treated bees. However, lightand electron microscopy showed hardly any difference between controls and gland cells, treated with Captan, Imidacloprid or Indoxacarb. Yet upon Fenoxycarb-treatment, acini showed a decrease in size, a granular texture and unorganized cytoplasm more quickly than normal. Indeed, after only 7 days, Fenoxycarb-treated glands displayed features typical of the onset of foraging in older bees.

Mots clés: crop protection products; hypopharyngeal gland; honeybee; histology

Domaines: Zoologie des invertébrés; Biodiversité; Ecologie, Environnement; Science des productions animales

Kevin Heylen, Bruno Gobin, Lutgarde Arckens, Roger Huybrechts, Johan Billen. The effects of four crop protection products on the morphology and ultrastructure of the hypopharyngeal gland of the European honeybee, Apis mellifera. Apidologie, 2011, 42 (1), pp.103-116. ⟨10.1051/apido/2010043⟩. ⟨hal-01003577⟩