Morphological assessment of the sperm of honey bee drones Apis mellifera L. as an indicator of its quality

The sperm quality of honey bee drones is assessed by the motility, viability and concentration of spermatozoa. The morphology of the sperm nucleus is of great importance for fertilization. The most objective indicators of sperm nucleus morphology are the size and shape of the head. The purpose of the research is to study morphometric parameters of spermatozoa of honey bee drones Apis mellifera L. in the assessment of sperm quality. We harvested semen by artificial stimulation of endophallus eversion from sexually mature drones at the age of 22-30 days using SCHLEY-System artificial insemination equipment model 1.04. For the first time, we used honey diluent for sperm dilution, and fixation was performed using Diff Quick. We assessed spermatozoa for motility, concentration, and viability. We studied the following morphometric parameters: acrosome length (3.8-4.3 µm), nucleus length (5.2-5.5 µm), nucleus perimeter (11.7-12.2 µm), and area (5.0-6.2 µm). There was a correlation between morphometric parameters of spermatozoa and qualitative characteristics of sperm (r = -0,4-0,3 with p