In the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.), the queen is normally the only reproductively active individual in the colony. Should a colony become queenless, however, unmated female workers can develop ovaries and lay male eggs. Both the queen and brood produce pheromones inhibiting this worker ovarian development, but the identity of the pheromones remains incompletely known. The effect of three newly identified queen pheromones on worker ovarian development was tested on caged workers, in addition to the previously known five-component queen mandibular pheromone (QMP). Newly emerged workers were exposed to one of four treatments: (1) solvent blank (2) QMP (3) blend of three newly identified compounds or (4) QMP + 3-component blend. Workers were fed 60% royal jelly and honey, and exposed to 0.1 queen-equivalents of treatment per day for 14 days. The ovaries were then dissected, assigned to one of five categories according to their level of development, and differences in ovarian development examined.
Species 1: Hymenoptera Apidae Apis mellifera (honey bee)
Keywords: ovary inhibition, pheromone
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