- An abdominal gland linked above all to wax production in young workers.
- A gland located in the head, very active in young nurse bees.
- A thoracic gland linked above all to nectar collection in foragers.
Show the answer
Correct answer: 2.
A gland located in the head, very active in young nurse bees.
Why?
The hypopharyngeal glands are located in the head of the workers. They develop above all in young nurse bees, in connection with their tasks of feeding the brood and the queen.
They produce a significant part of the brood food, of which royal jelly is a particular form used notably for feeding the royal larvae and the queen.
What to understand
Their activity depends on the age of the bee, its role in the colony, the presence of open brood and the pollen supply. A colony well supplied with protein generally allows a better development of these glands in the nurse bees.
In a young worker, the hypopharyngeal glands are linked above all to the production of glandular food. Later, when the bee changes role, their activity evolves: they can in particular take part in the transformation of the sugars of the nectar, for example through enzymes such as invertase.
These glands illustrate well the plasticity of the worker bee. Depending on the colony's needs, certain functions can be modulated. This adaptation depends on complex physiological mechanisms, including feeding, the brood pheromones and the general state of the colony.
What to remember
The hypopharyngeal gland is a cephalic gland essential to the role of nurse bee.
It directly links the quality of protein feeding, the presence of brood and the colony's capacity to feed its larvae properly.
Further reading
► Internal anatomy: the digestive system
► Royal jelly: one of the many factors in making a queen
► Nurse bees do not feed only the brood: brood food also circulates between adults
► Vitellogenin and the keys to the colony