How to Write Scientific Paper

Received 21 March 2004

Accepted 14 June 2004

Published online 7 September 2004

Queen-signal modulation of worker pheromonal

composition in honeybees

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Tamar Katzav-Gozansky1 , Raphael Boulay2, Victoria Soroker3

1

and Abraham Hefetz

1

Department of Zoology, George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Ramat Aviv, 69978 Tel Aviv, Israel

Estacion Biologica de Don

˜ana, CSIC, Apdo. 1056, 41013 Sevilla, Spain

3

Department of Entomology, ARO, The Volcani Center, Bet Dagan, 50250, Israel

2

Worker sterility in honeybees is neither absolute nor irreversible. Whether under queen or worker control, it

is likely to be mediated by pheromones. Queen-specific pheromones are not exclusive to queens; workers

with activated ovaries also produce them. The association between ovarian activation and queen-like pheromone occurrence suggests the latter as providing a reliable signal of reproductive ability. In this study we

investigated the effect of queen pheromones on ovary development and occurrence of queen-like esters in

workers’ Dufour’s gland. Workers separated from the queenright compartment by a double mesh behaved

like queenless workers, activating their ovaries and expressing a queen-like Dufour’s gland secretion,

confirming that the pheromones regulating both systems are non-volatile. Workers with developed ovaries

produced significantly more secretion than sterile workers, which we attribute primarily to increased ester

production. Workers separated from the queenright compartment by a single mesh displayed a delayed

ovarian development, which we attribute to interrupted transfer of the non-volatile pheromone between

compartments. We suggest that worker expression of queen-like characters reflects a queen–worker arms

race; and that Dufour’s gland secretion may provide a reliable signal for ovarian activation. The associative

nature between ovary development and Dufour’s gland ester production remains elusive.

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