Hygienic behavior and fat body development in worker bees (Apis mellifera L.)

Abstract. Testing for the level of manifestation of the hygienic behavior of 32 bee colonies from the local honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) from three apiaries has been carried out. Depending on the level of manifestation of the cleansing instinct, two groups of bee colonies have been formed – hygienic (these clean over 95% of the cells with dead brood up to the 48th hour after killing the brood) and non-hygienic (these clean less than 95% of the cells with dead brood up to the 48th hour). Worker bee samples have been taken from the tested bee colonies to determine the level of fat body development. The fat body is important for the bee organism, since in addition to being a fat and carbohydrate storage depot, it is also considered to be the center of metabolism in insects. The analysis of the results from the present study revealed that the mean value of the level of fat body development in worker bees from the group of hygienic bee colonies was 2.76±0.038. In the group of non-hygienic colonies this value was 7.61% lower (2.55±0.079). This difference is statistically significant at p≤0.05. Significant differences have been found in the development of the fat body in worker bees from apiaries at a distance of 100 km without regard to hygienic behavior and according to hygienic behavior. The results obtained suggest that there is a correlation between the level of fat body development and the hygienic behavior in bees.