Queen mandibular pheromone (QMP), consisting of five synergistic components, is the only chemically identified pheromone in the queen honey bee (Apis mellifera). However, this pheromone does not fully duplicate the attractiveness of a full queen extract. To identify the remaining unknown compounds, we selectively bred colonies to have low response to synthetic QMP and high response to queen extract in a laboratory retinue bioassay. Workers from these colonies were then used in the bioassay to guide the isolation and identification of the remaining active components responsible for retinue attraction in the queen extract. We report here our results in identifying new components that, when combined with QMP, approach the attractiveness of a full queen extract.
The ESA 2001 Annual Meeting - 2001: An Entomological Odyssey of ESA