Abstract: 【Aim】 This study aims to explore the embryonic development process of the female Eastern hive honey bee, Apis cerana cerana. 【Methods】 In the normally developed colony of A. c. cerana, the queen was restricted to the comb with worker cells for 1 h by the queen controller. The queen laid fertilized female eggs in the worker cells. Then the patch of comb with these eggs was cut off and incubated at the conditions of constant temperature 35±0.2℃ and RH 75%±5% in incubator. The newly obtained eggs laid by queen within 1 h were set as the age 0 h, and egg samples were collected every 4 h. The embryonic development of female A. c. cerana was observed by paraffin section based on female eggs. 【Results】 Based on the morphological characteristics, the embryonic development process of female A. c. cerana can be divided into four stages: (1) Cleavage (0-12 h), with energids moving to the surface of embryo in a doublelayer arrangement; (2) Formation of blastoderm (12-28 h), with energids arranged in a single layer and cytomembrane form; (3) Formation of germinal layers (28-40 h), with lateral plates covering the middle plate, and then two lateral plates coalescing together at the ventral midline; (4) Formation of organ systems (40-68 h). 【Conclusion】 In this study, the morphological changes of embryos of female A. c. cerana were identified, and the developmental stages and corresponding time were defined based on the morphological characteristics of each stage. The results of this study are helpful for the further study of honey bee ecology, developmental biology, and nutritional science related to embryonic development.

Key words: Apis cerana cerana, embryonic development, cleavage, blastoderm, germinal layer