Abstract
Primer pheromones are thought to act in a variety of vertebrates and invertebrates but only a few have been chemically identified. We report that a blend of ten fatty-acid esters found on the cuticles of honeybee larvae, already known as a kairomone, releaser pheromone and primer pheromone, also act as a primer pheromone in the regulation of division of labour among adult workers. Bees in colonies receiving brood pheromone initiated foraging at significantly older ages than did bees in control colonies in five out of five trials. Laboratory and additional field tests also showed that exposure to brood pheromone significantly depressed blood titres of juvenile hormone. Brood pheromone exerted more consistent effects on age at first foraging than on juvenile hormone, suggesting that the primer effects of this pheromone may occur via other, unknown, mechanisms besides juvenile hormone. These results bring the number of social factors known to influence honeybee division of labour to three: worker-worker interactions, queen mandibular pheromone and brood pheromone.
Full Text
The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (131.9 KB).
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Huang Z. Y., Plettner E., Robinson G. E. Effects of social environment and worker mandibular glands on endocrine-mediated behavioral development in honey bees. J Comp Physiol A. 1998 Aug;183(2):143–152. doi: 10.1007/s003590050242. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Huang Z. Y., Robinson G. E., Borst D. W. Physiological correlates of division of labor among similarly aged honey bees. J Comp Physiol A. 1994 Jun;174(6):731–739. doi: 10.1007/BF00192722. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Huang Z. Y., Robinson G. E. Honeybee colony integration: worker-worker interactions mediate hormonally regulated plasticity in division of labor. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 1992 Dec 15;89(24):11726–11729. doi: 10.1073/pnas.89.24.11726. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Le Conte Y., Arnold G., Trouiller J., Masson C., Chappe B., Ourisson G. Attraction of the parasitic mite varroa to the drone larvae of honey bees by simple aliphatic esters. Science. 1989 Aug 11;245(4918):638–639. doi: 10.1126/science.245.4918.638. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Mohammedi A., Crauser D., Paris A., Le Conte Y. Effect of a brood pheromone on honeybee hypopharyngeal glands. C R Acad Sci III. 1996 Sep;319(9):769–772. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Robinson G. E., Page R. E., Jr, Strambi C., Strambi A. Hormonal and genetic control of behavioral integration in honey bee colonies. Science. 1989 Oct 6;246(4926):109–112. doi: 10.1126/science.246.4926.109. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Robinson G. E. Regulation of division of labor in insect societies. Annu Rev Entomol. 1992;37:637–665. doi: 10.1146/annurev.en.37.010192.003225. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Robinson G. E., Vargo E. L. Juvenile hormone in adult eusocial Hymenoptera: gonadotropin and behavioral pacemaker. Arch Insect Biochem Physiol. 1997;35(4):559–583. doi: 10.1002/(SICI)1520-6327(1997)35:4<559::AID-ARCH13>3.0.CO;2-9. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Robinson G. E., Winston M. L., Huang Z. -Y., Pankiw T. Queen mandibular gland pheromone influences worker honey bee (Apis mellifera L.) foraging ontogeny and juvenile hormone titers. J Insect Physiol. 1998 Jul;44(7-8):685–692. doi: 10.1016/s0022-1910(98)00040-7. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Sullivan J. P., Fahrbach S. E., Robinson G. E. Juvenile hormone paces behavioral development in the adult worker honey bee. Horm Behav. 2000 Feb;37(1):1–14. doi: 10.1006/hbeh.1999.1552. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]