A Closer LOOK GLANDS

摘要

Salivary glands are involved in digestion,cleaning, softening foods, metabolism, growth, labor transition, broodpheromone and hormone regulation, saliva synthesis and even silk production.Honey bee salivary glands are important exocrine glands (chemical products are secreted to the body exterior). Salivary glands, also known as labial glands, are composed of two parts, the cephalic salivary glands or post-cerebral glands located in the head behind the brain and the thoracic salivary glands in the ventral part of the thorax, all of which connect through a common duct to the mouth (Figure 1). The two pairs of salivary glands open into a narrow sac or salivarium behind the posterior flangeof the hypopharynx, by means of the common duct (Goodman 2003) (Figure 2). The adult cephalic and thoracic salivary glands begin to develop during the pupal period and progressively increase in size from the newly emerged workers to foragers, reaching their maximal size when the workers begin to forage (Katzav-Gozansky et al. 2001). Thoracic salivary glands are large in queens and workers and small in drones. Cephalic salivary glands are also large in queens and workers but vestigial in drones. The cephalic glands of queens increase in activity when they start egg laying.