Yuuki Katou1, Keiko Nakamura1, and Masami Sasaki2. (1) Graduate school of Agriculture, Tamagawa University, Machida, Tokyo, 194-8610, Japan, (2) Honeybee Science Research Center, Machida, Tokyo, 194-8610, Japan
Both worker and queen honeybees sting, but the reason and timing are different. In workers, stinging of natural enemies like mammal is evoked in guards and foragers. In queens, stinging is restricted to young queens killing sibling rivals. Workers die soon after stinging once, but queens can sting repeatedly. The sting venom components are also different, reflecting the different reasons for stinging. So far, there has been no detailed structural and functional comparison of stinging in the two castes. We compared the size of major muscles driving the sting apparatus, the size of the venom gland and reservoir, and the independency of the last abdominal ganglion including the central pattern generator (CPG) that programs specific repeated sting movements. We analyzed ontogenic development of the stinging response in workers after emergence by applying a standardized physical stimulus to the abdomen side. Younger bees (>1 day) that do not usually sting, responded similarly to older guard bees. Day-0 bees showed no stinging response when intact, but did show the response when decapitated, suggesting a neural inhibition—probably from brain—on the onset of stinging at a young age. This inhibition was partly cancelled by applying a JH analog to newly emerged bees.
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