Can anyone name this piece of anatomy

[Brian Bush]

I am studying for the BBKA module 7 exam. Past papers produce the attached drawing and ask for the candidate to identify the parts of the reproductive system of the queen bee marked 'U'
The drawing is taken from a copy of Snodgrass but my copy and booklet does not identify it.
I have spent many hours trying to identify it online but all I have been able to do is eliminate other glands etc.
Today I did find a drawing with it indicated 'P' but this is not from my copy of Snodgrass. Can anyone please help? I am beginning to suspect that the examiner has read an obscure book and is testing us!!!

 

[Millet]

Page 8 Dufour / Duflour Gland maybe .

http://www.slideshare.net/rickbledsoe16/internal-anatomy-of-the-honey-bee-49846573

 

[Millet]

I googled it and found this if its any good too you.


Dufour's gland pheromone

The Dufour's gland (named after the French naturalist Léon Jean Marie Dufour) opens into the dorsal vaginal wall. Dufour’s gland and its secretion have been somewhat of a mystery. The gland secretes its alkaline products into the vaginal cavity, and it has been assumed to be deposited on the eggs as they are laid. Indeed, Dufour’s secretions allow worker bees to distinguish between eggs laid by the queen, which are attractive, and those laid by workers. The complex of as many as 24 chemicals differs between workers in "queenright" colonies and workers of queenless colonies. In the latter, the workers’ Dufour secretions are similar to those of a healthy queen. The secretions of workers in queenright colonies are long-chain alkanes with odd numbers of carbon atoms, but those of egg-laying queens and egg-laying workers of queenless colonies also include long chain esters.[7]

 

[B+.]

Today I did find a drawing with it indicated 'P' but this is not from my copy of Snodgrass. Can anyone please help? I am beginning to suspect that the examiner has read an obscure book and is testing us!!!

It is marked as "P" on a slighly clearer drawing in "The Hive and the Honeybee" page 168, However, the first link at the bottom of Millets google link says it is referred to as the "alkaline gland" in older texts.

 

[For want of a better word]

Thanks... thought it was a typo!

Mytten da

 

[B+.]

Always getting my alkaloids and alkanes muddled......

. does that make me a BAD BEEKEEPERER ?

Alkane is a hydrocarbon (C-C single bonds)
Alkaloid is an organic nitrogen containing base.......according to Mrs B+ who knows about such things

Yes...definitely a bad beekeeperER

 

[Brian Bush]

Thank you all for your input. I was desperate to find the answer and consulted many books. This afternoon I had an idea. I was certain the original drawing, used by many others since, came from 'The anatomy of the honey bee' by Snodgrass. I have the 1910 version downloaded from the internet. There have been several updates over the years the last being in 1956. This is currently in print and available from Northern Bee Books. I rang NBB and asked if they could check the figure in the 1956 edition to see if this is the one with reference to this piece of anatomy. The gentleman phoned me back and told me this is labelled by Snodgrass as the Lateral Pouch of the Bursa Copulatrix.
I attach a PDF of my labelled drawing. Please feel free to disagree and point out any errors I have made.

 

[Millet]

Glad you got is sorted but the P is pointing at a different spot on the first PDF file.

 

[Brian Bush]

Glad you got is sorted but the P is pointing at a different spot on the first PDF file.

Hi Millet
Yes thanks, I think it is one of those encircling glands with a lobe on either side. I may of course be wrong!!!!!

 

[B+.]

The gentleman phoned me back and told me this is labelled by Snodgrass as the Lateral Pouch of the Bursa Copulatrix.
I attach a PDF of my labelled drawing. Please feel free to disagree and point out any errors I have made.

The diagram I referred to in "The hive and the honeybee" has P marked as "lateral genital pouch" (sorry its such a bad scan)

 

[Brian Bush]

The diagram I referred to in "The hive and the honeybee" has P marked as "lateral genital pouch" (sorry its such a bad scan)

Hi B+
We are both correct. My study buddy came over last night and his research tells us these are a pouch on either side that the Bursal Cornua (Genital Horns) of the drone lock into for mating. It is part of the system that ensures the drone stays attached and leaves the mating sign behind after copulation.
I have my copy of the hive and the honey bee bought as a Christmas present by my wife. She said it was a bible and threatened to smash my ganglions with it. It was the one book I did not consult yesterday, DOH!!
I find it very strange that all these books use the original Snodgrass Drawings. There are none clearer. He must have been a most meticulous man. Set the standard so high it has not been bettered in 100 years.

 

[B+.]

I find it very strange that all these books use the original Snodgrass Drawings. There are none clearer. He must have been a most meticulous man. Set the standard so high it has not been bettered in 100 years.

Yes. I agree.
Unfortunately, some of the older texts have become out-dated by recent research and names have changed. Books still have their place, but, I wonder how long before the internet and search tools replace them

 

[Madge]

...
I attach a PDF of my labelled drawing. Please feel free to disagree and point out any errors I have made.

I think you found the answer to your question about the lateral pouches (interesting) - but I think there is a mistake in the labelling on that drawing, though not about the pouches.

It labels the alkaline gland and Dufour gland as two separate glands - but we know it's one and the same. I think what the drawing has labelled as alkaline gland is in fact the one prong of the venom glands.

Kitta

 

[Millet]

I think you found the answer to your question about the lateral pouches (interesting) - but I think there is a mistake in the labelling on that drawing, though not about the pouches.

It labels the alkaline gland and Dufour gland as two separate glands - but we know it's one and the same. I think what the drawing has labelled as alkaline gland is in fact the one prong of the venom glands.

Kitta

Either way i learned that the queen leaves a smell on the egg she lays so other bees know its a queen egg and not a worker egg, amazing to me, and when you think of it the queen started life as a worker.