Abstract
Synthetic 9-oxodecenoic acid, one of the pheromones of Apis mellifera L., has been tested on brood growth in the ant Myrmica. It showed limited activity but only in situations in which the normal queens stimulate rather than suppress. It did not inhibit oviposition by workers. Ingestion in food was not necessary. Myrmica queen heads crushed in ethanol gave suppressive, and mandibular glands in paraffin oil gave stimulatory effects. These results indicate that the suppressive and stimulatory roles of the queen may depend on different mechanisms and employ different pheromones: the former a volatile or unstable substance from the head (perhaps the mandibular gland), the latter a substance (probably 9-oxodecenoic acid) from the mandibular glands.
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