Choosing the best: honeybee workers can assess reproductive quality of the queen through pheromonal signalling in simultaneous choice assays

• Published in: Apidologie Vol. 51; no. 3; pp. 291 - 306
• Main Authors: Margarita, Orlova, Osnat, Malka, Abraham, Hefetz
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Paris Springer Paris 01.06.2020; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Verlag
• Subjects: aggression; Apis mellifera; Bees; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Entomology; Insects; Life Sciences; mechanism of action; Mode of action; Original Article; Pheromones; Quality assessment; Queens; reproductive performance; Signal quality; Signaling; social behavior; Workers (insect caste); queen quality; ); queen signal; Dufour’s gland; honeybee; queen mandibular pheromone; honeybee (Apis mellifera)
• ISSN: 0044-8435; 1297-9678
• DOI: 10.1007/s13592-019-00712-w

Chemical signals are known to play an important part in the organisation of insect societies, but the mode of action of these signals is still a subject of controversy. While some researchers propose that pheromones produced by the queen are honest signals of her quality informing worker behaviour, others suggest that they are means of manipulation not necessarily beneficial to workers’ fitness. The honeybee ( Apis mellifera ) is sometimes cited as an example of the latter possibility. Our study aimed to test the extent to which queen quality predicts worker behaviour, the relation of queen-produced chemicals to her quality and the interplay between queen signalling and worker behaviour. We decided to test worker attitude towards different queens in the most direct way by presenting groups of workers simultaneously with two different queens of differential reproductive capacity, and analysing worker behaviour towards each of them in terms of attendance, retinue and aggression. Our results indicate that workers show preference for queens with higher reproductive potential, that queen’s reproductive potential was honestly reflected in queen-produced signals and that these signals indeed guide worker behaviour. Thus, our findings overall support the honest queen signal theory and contribute to understanding of mechanisms underlying different phenomena in bee sociality.