DIFFERENCES IN THE NUMBER OF SOME ANTENNAL SENSILLA OF 4 HONEY-BEE (APIS-MELLIFERA) TYPES AND COMPARISONS WITH THE DEFENSIVE BEHAVIOR

The number of sensilla coeloconica, ampullacea and campaniformia of fl agellomeres 3 to 10 of the antennae of workers of four honey bee types (Italian, Caucasian, African and Africanized) was studied by scanning electron microscopy. Comparisons of the four bee types showed that on ly African and Africanized honey bees did not differ from one another with respect to the number of sensilla coeloconica and ampullacea of f lagellomere 10. African and Africanized honey bees and Caucasian and I talian honey bees also did not differ from one another in terms of fla gellomere 9. In the other flagellomeres there were no differences amon g bee types. Italian and Caucasian honey bees differed from Africanize d honey bees in terms of number of sensilla campaniformia on flagellom ere 6, and Caucasian honey bees differed from African and Africanized honey bees in terms of flagellomere 3. Five significant but random cor relation values were obtained between number of antennal sensilla and defensive behaviour in Africanized honey bees. Thus,there is no relati onship between antennal structures and defence behaviour.