Relative attractiveness of queen mandibular pheromone components to honey bee (Apis mellifera) drones
Author(s)
Gerald M Loper; Orley R Taylor, Jr; Leonard J Foster; Jan Kochansky
Abstract
Queen honey bees produce a mixture of pheromones whose functions are still incompletely understood. A total of five queen mandibular gland pheromone (QMP) chemicals have been identified; 9-keto-2(E) decenoic acid (9-ODA) is the most abundant and appears to be the most biologically active, although the other chemicals have varying effects on worker development, behaviour and response (Slessor et al., 1990). The proportions of these chemicals, especially 9-ODA and 4- hydroxy-3-methoxyphenylethanol (HDA), change as the virgin queens age and after they mate (Pankiw et al., 1996). 9-ODA also serves to attract flying drones to queens on mating flights even though drones are unresponsive to queens while in the nest
