Abstract
Queen pheromones are chemical signals produced by reproductive individuals in social insect colonies. In many species they are key to the maintenance of reproductive division of labor, with workers beginning to reproduce individually once the queen pheromone disappears. Recently, a queen pheromone that negatively affects worker fecundity was discovered in the bumblebee Bombus terrestris, presenting an exciting opportunity for comparisons with analogous queen pheromones in independently-evolved eusocial lineages such as honey bees, ants, wasps and termites. I set out to replicate this discovery and verify its reproducibility. Using blind, controlled experiments, I found that n-pentacosane (C25) does indeed negatively affect worker ovary development. Moreover, the pheromone affects both large and small workers, and applies to workers from large, mature colonies as well as young colonies. Given that C25 is readily available and that bumblebees are popular study organisms, I hope that this replication will encourage other researchers to tackle the many research questions enabled by the discovery of a queen pheromone.
Highlights
Queen pheromones are chemical signals produced by queens to communicate with conspecifics, typically other colony members such as workers
Experimental evidence linking specific queen-produced chemicals to worker responses was largely limited to the well-studied honeybee (Apis mellifera), though there is a wealth of non-experimental evidence that queen pheromones are widespread
I found that larger workers were more fecund, the effect of the pheromone appeared to be consistent across the range of worker sizes
Summary
Queen pheromones are chemical signals produced by queens (or other fertile females) to communicate with conspecifics, typically other colony members such as workers They have been implicated in a great many worker responses to queens, including a negative effect on worker ovary development or reproduction (Hoover et al, 2003; Matsuura et al, 2010; Holman et al, 2010; Van Oystaeyen et al, 2014), aggregation around the queen (Keeling et al, 2003), differential behavioral development (Hoover et al, 2003; Vergoz, Schreurs & Mercer, 2007; Matsuura et al, 2010; Holman et al, 2010; Van Oystaeyen et al, 2014), and a wealth of upstream genetic and physiological effects (Kaatz, Hildebrandt & Engels, 1992; Keeling et al, 2003; Grozinger et al, 2003; Malka et al, 2014). It is an exciting time to study queen pheromones, since their discovery in these diverse, independently evolved eusocial lineages poses many new questions
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