The releaser effects of the tergal gland secretion of queen honeybees (Apis mellifera)

Queen honeybees are attractive to their workers, due partially to the phero monal bouquet they secrete. Queen mandibular gland pheromone is a powerful attractant to worker honeybees but it is not solely responsible for eliciti ng retinue behavior: The attractiveness of virgin queen tergal gland secret ions and queen mandibular pheromone to worker honeybees was tested using a retinue bioassay, The number of workers attending the treated pseudoqueen l ures was videorecorded in order to allow for the quantification of attracti veness. Queen mandibular gland secretions were more attractive than tergal gland secretions (P less than or equal to 0.008), and both queen tergal gla nd secretions (P less than or equal to 0.0002) and mandibular gland secreti ons (P less than or equal to 0.0001) were significantly more attractive tha n the control treatment, This laboratory bioassay indicates that queen terg al gland secretions have a releaser effect that evokes retinue behavior fro m worker honeybees.