ABSTRACT
Pheromones produced by social insect queens perform both primer and releaser functions in controlling various aspects of colony behavior. Releaser pheromones elicit a stimulus-response mediated by the nervous system whereas primer pheromones function by physiologically altering the endocrine and /or reproductive systems. As a primer pheromone, queen's mandibular pheromone (QMP) inhibits queen rearing through an as-yet unknown mechanism and suppresses the ontogeny of worker foraging by diminishing the release of Juvenile Hormone in worker bees. Comparisons of worker honey bee responses to synthetic QMP and to queen mandibular extract show no significant differences between colony and laboratory situations. The glandular source of the new pheromone in the queen honey bee head remains unknown. Preliminary chemical evidence indicates that the pheromone may be comprised of at least an acidic component as some activity is maintained in material extracted into base and re-extracted on acidification.
