Dimorphic antennal systems in gynandromorphic honey bees, Apis Mellifera 1. (Hymenoptera : Apidae)

Gynandromorphic honey bees, Apis mellifera (Hymenoptera: Apidae), were exam ined to determine characteristic morphological and anatomical features of t he antennal system. The antennae of gynandromorphic individuals are predomi nantly worker or drone-like. Hybrid antennae, composed of female and male t issues, occur only rarely (7 out of 188 examined antennae). Depending on th e mosaic pattern of the head, both antennae can be drone-like or worker-lik e, or one can be drone-like and the other worker-like. Examination of the a ntennal lobes of six characteristic specimens revealed that antennal lobes, which are innervated by drone-like antennae, always have drone-specific en larged tracts and macroglomerular complexes, whereas antennal lobes innerva ted by worker-like antennae always are composed of normally sized glomeruli . Thus, there is a strict correlation between the sexual morphology of the antennae and the sexual organization of the antennal lobe neuropil. In one antennal lobe, innervated by a hybrid antenna, we found a hypertrophied glo merulus, certainly homologous to one of the macroglomerular complexes in dr one-like antennal lobes. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved .