Morphological Structure and Distribution of Hairiness on Different Body Parts of Apis mellifera with an Implication on Pollination Biology and a Novel Method to Measure the Hair Length.

Abstract

Simple SummaryThe western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is an important ecological pollinator that commercially and economically contributes billions of dollars of free services to our ecosystem. Having the basic knowledge to provide an effective and standardized measure of the trait and check the pollination effectiveness is very important. However, we are still lacking efficient methods that can significantly measure traits. In this study, we checked the morphological structure of hairs on all of the body parts of the western honey bee by using a scanning electron microscope (SEM); furthermore, we also described the slide preparation method to measure hair length, which could also be used for distinct invertebrates. We found two forms of long and short hairs along with five different types of branches. These branches are worthwhile in pollination effectiveness during holding and transporting pollen. The thoracic region is filled with long hairs with maximum branches, which suggests that the thorax in honey bees probably plays a significant role in pollination effectiveness.Bees play a very important role in pollination, especially western honey bees, which contribute upwards of billions of dollars concerning crop pollination. Hairiness plays an important role in pollination success by transporting pollen, and pollen intake, but there is a lack of detailed studies on the morphological mechanisms. The hairiness trait is barely discussed in pollinator trait analysis because of the lack of systematic techniques used to measure hairiness. This paper reports a novel method that is used to measure the hair length of different body parts of a western honey bee through a stereomicroscope equipped with live measurement module software. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) was used to update the knowledge regarding the hair structure of a western honey bee. We explained different types of hairs, hair branches, and their distributions on different body parts, which are discussed in detail. A positive correlation was found between hair length and the number of branches on all body parts. Five types of branches were observed, and these branches vary with different body parts. Our study provides sufficient details about the hair morphology of the western honey bee and a new methodology for measuring hair length. This methodology will improve the knowledge about understanding the pollination efficiency of the western honey bee.