Reproductive division of labour is a defining characteristic of eusocial insects. In honey bees, there is normally a single, highly fecund queen, responsible for producing all the brood in the colony. Workers are functionally sterile, developing their latent ovaries only upon queen loss. Workers cannot mate, and are only capable of laying unfertilised, male eggs. I investigated the effects of various chemical, genetic, and nutritional factors on the ovary development of honey bee workers. I demonstrate that queen mandibular pheromone inhibits worker ovary development in caged queenless workers to the same degree as queen extracts. Four newly identified queen pheromone components did not inhibit ovary development alone, nor did they increase the efficacy of the other components. Anarchistic bees are a line developed by recurrent selection in which workers commonly reproduce in queenright colonies. There was no difference between the ovary development of anarchistic or wild type workers in colonies headed by anarchistic or wild type queens, therefore queen type is not responsible for the phenomenon. Anarchistic workers perceive queen pheromones, and anarchistic queens produce an attractive blend, as I found no differences in the retinue response of either worker type to either queen type. There also was no difference in response to queen pheromones at a high dose. At lower doses, however, wild type workers were more inhibited by queen pheromones than were anarchistic workers. Both adult and larval diet influenced adult ovary development, but workers fed high quality diets as adults had higher levels of ovary development than those fed low quality diets as adults regardless of larval diet quality. Nutrition is likely responsible for the seasonal variation observed in ovary development. Disruptive selection resulted in lines of bees with high or low levels of ovary development. High ovary development colonies collected far more pollen than their low line counterparts. Cross-fostering workers from the high line into the low line and vice versa demonstrated that there is an effect of both genotype and rearing environment. These results demonstrate the complex interactions between nutrition, pheromones, genetics, and environment that determine worker reproductive potential.

Intraspecific communication involves the activation of chemoreceptors and subsequent activation of different central areas that coordinate the responses of the entire organism—ranging from behavioral modification to modulation of hormones release. Animals emit intraspecific chemical signals, often referred to as pheromones, to advertise their presence to members of the same species and to regulate interactions aimed at establishing and regulating social and reproductive bonds. In the last two decades, scientists have developed a greater understanding of the neural processing of these chemical signals. Neurobiology of Chemical Communication explores the role of the chemical senses in mediating intraspecific communication. Providing an up-to-date outline of the most recent advances in the field, it presents data from laboratory and wild species, ranging from invertebrates to vertebrates, from insects to humans. The book examines the structure, anatomy, electrophysiology, and molecular biology of pheromones. It discusses how chemical signals work on different mammalian and non-mammalian species and includes chapters on insects, Drosophila, honey bees, amphibians, mice, tigers, and cattle. It also explores the controversial topic of human pheromones. An essential reference for students and researchers in the field of pheromones, this is also an ideal resource for those working on behavioral phenotyping of animal models and persons interested in the biology/ecology of wild and domestic species.

A comprehensive review of the honeybees of Africa on a subspecies as well as by country basis. Includes an updated multivariate analysis of the subspecies based on the merger of the Ruttner database (Oberursel) and that of Hepburn & Radloff (Grahamstown) for nearly 20,000 bees. Special emphasis is placed on natural zones of hybridisation and introgression of different populations; seasonal cycles of development in different ecological-climatological zones of the continent; swarming, migration and absconding; and an analysis of the bee flora of the continent. The text is supplemented by tables containing quantitative data on all aspects of honeybee biology, and by continental and regional maps.