Pheromone (honey bee)

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Honey bee pheromones (Greek:“carrier of excitement”) are chemical substances released by individual bees into the hive or environment that cause changes in the physiology and behaviour of other bees. Pheromones may be volatile or non-volatile. The pheromones are chemical messengers secreted by a queen, drone or worker bee that elicit a response in other bees. The chemical messages are received by the bee's antenna and other body parts. Honey bee (Apis mellifera) pheromones can be grouped into pheromones with short term and long term effects.

Contents
1 Short term effect pheromones

1.1 Alarm pheromone
1.2 Brood recognition pheromone
1.3 Drone pheromone
1.4 Egg marking pheromone
1.5 Footprint pheromone
1.6 Nasonov pheromone
1.7 Queen mandibular pheromone (QMP)
1.8 Primer pheromone

Short term effect pheromones

Short term effect pheromones are also called releaser pheromones. They trigger an almost immediate behavioral response from the receiving bee.

Alarm pheromone

Alarm pheromone is released by the Koschevnikov gland, near the sting shaft, and consists of more than 40 chemical compounds, including isopentyl acetate (IPA), butyl acetate, 1-hexanol], 1-butanol, 1-octanol, hexyl acetate, octyl acetate, n-pentyl acetate and 2-nonanol. The chemical compounds have low molecular weights, are highly volatile and appear to be the least specific of all pheromones. Alarm pheromone is released by worker bees to alert other bees of danger and is released when a bee stings another animal. This pheromone attracts other bees to the location and causes the other bees to behave defensively, i.e. sting or charge. Smoke can mask the bees alarm pheromone.

Brood recognition pheromone

One rarely finds evidence of a laying worker in a colony that still has live brood. Both larvae and pupae emit a "brood recognition" pheromone. This inhibits the ovarian development in worker bees and helps nurse bees distinguish worker larvae from drone larvae and pupae.

Drone pheromone

Drones produce a pheromone that attracts other flying drones to promote drone aggregations at sites suitable for mating with virgin queens.

Egg marking pheromone

Helps nurse bees distinguish between eggs layed by the queen bee and eggs layed by a laying worker.

Footprint pheromone

This is left by the bee when it walks and is useful in enhancing Nasonov pheromones in searching for nectar.

In the queen, it is an oily secretion of the queen's tarsal glands that is deposited on the comb as she walks across it. This inhibits queen cell construction (thereby inhibiting swarming) and diminishes as the queen ages.

Nasonov pheromone

These are emitted by the worker bees and used for orientation.

Queen mandibular pheromone (QMP)

The QMP, emitted by the queen, is one of the most important pheromones in the bee hive. It affects social behaviour, maintenance of the hive, swarming, mating behaviour, and inhibition of ovary development in worker bees. The effects are short and long term. Some of the chemicals found in QMP are carboxylic acids and aromatic compounds.

Synthetic queen mandibular pheromone (QMP) is a mixture of five components 9-ODA , (-) isomer (9-HDA), (+) isomer of (9-HDA), HOB and HVA in a ratio of 118:50:22:10:1.

Primer pheromone

Ethyl oleate is released by older forager bees to slow the maturing of nurse bees. This pheromone acts as a distributed regulator to keep the ratio of nurse bees to forager bees in the balance that is most beneficial to the hive. Primer pheromones are slow-acting pheromones.


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See also: Pheromone (honey bee), Apis mellifera, Aromatic compound, Carboxylic acid, Drone (bee), Ethyl oleate, Koschevnikov gland, Linolenic acid, Nasonov