Abstract
Social insects are known for their overwhelming diversity of exocrine glands. This study examines the glands in the legs of workers of Frieseomelitta varia (Lepeletier). A variety of 15 glands was found, with glands occurring in every leg segment, whereas previous studies only described 5 glands in stingless bee legs. Six glands are novel exocrine structures for social insects. Glands occurring in the articulation region between adjacent leg segments may occur in a repetitive pattern, and probably have a lubricant function. For most glands, however, the function is not yet known, and will require further experimental work.
Highlights
Social insects display an enormous variety of exocrine glands, the secretions of which play multiple roles in their social organization (Hölldobler & Wilson, 1990; Billen & Morgan, 1998; Billen, 2011)
Earlier work documenting the leg glands of 13 stingless bee species (Cruz-Landim et al, 1998; Cruz-Landim, 2002) listed only one third of the glands we found in Frieseomelitta
We found glands in all leg segments, which often show a similar pattern in the three leg pairs
Summary
Social insects display an enormous variety of exocrine glands, the secretions of which play multiple roles in their social organization (Hölldobler & Wilson, 1990; Billen & Morgan, 1998; Billen, 2011) Following their cellular organization, all glands can be classified in one of two major groups as first described in the pioneer paper on insect exocrine glands by Noirot and Quennedey (1974): class-1 glands are formed by simple epithelial secretory cells, while class-3 glands are formed by a number of bicellular units, each unit comprising a large spherical secretory cell and an accompanying slender duct cell. The ducts and the corresponding pores at their opening site have a characteristic diameter of 0.5-1 μm Glands of both groups can either occur underneath the external cuticle, and in this case release their secretion directly to the exterior, or they can be part of an invaginated reservoir sac, where secretion can be temporarily stored. Its most important conclusions were the occurrence of epithelial glands only in the basitarsus and pretarsus (with a report that queens have sacculiform glands in their femur), the widespread occurrence of class-3 glandular cells in the various leg segments, and that tarsomeres 2 to 4 did not contain any gland cells
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