The innervation of the mandibular nerve of the worker honey bee was investigated primarily with methylene blue vital staining. Results on the motor innervation were compared with those of earlier work, yielding some corrections and new findings. The nerve to the mandibular abductor muscle not only carries motor fibers but also supplies sensory branches to the head integument and to the presumptive proprioceptors which probably monitor movements of the proboscis. A small neural mass which is equipped with two systems for proprioception is situated at the point where the mandibular nerve divides into its major branches. One system is composed of receptor muscles stretched between the anterior tentorial arm (AT) and the mandible and multipolar cells. The other is composed of elastic strands between AT and the apodeme of a smaller branch of the mandibular adductor and tripolar cells. The former is stretched by mandibular abduction and the latter by adduction. The two systems collectively are called the mandibular muscle receptor organ. There are two groups of receptor muscles: the outer receptor muscle, which is located outside the neural mass, and the inner receptor muscle located within. Only the latter is innervated by multipolar cells. Another, single, multipolar cell is attached to the surface of the tendon of the inner receptor muscle. A further pair of bipolar-multiterminal cells attaches to the epidermis at the extremity of the apodeme of the mandibular adductor. One originates from the mandibular nerve and the other from the labral nerve. Both presumably respond to the epidermal expansion caused by mandibular abduction.
Copyright © 1986 Wiley-Liss, Inc.