Mass spectral identification of the tergal gland secretions of female castes of two African honey bee races (Apis mellifera)

The tergal gland secretions in queens, workers and pseudoqueens of Apis mel lifera capensis and Apis mellifera scutellata are composed of longchain fat ty acids, long-chain esters and a linear series of unsaturated hydrocarbons . The cuticular extracts, on the other hand, consisted of a linear series ( C-23-C-31) of saturated hydrocarbons and were shown to be identical for bot h A. m. capensis and A. m. scutellata queens and workers. The major compoun d in the tergal gland secretion for all test groups, was (Z)-9-octadecenoic acid. Virgin queens are distinguishable from mated queens (P = 0.0001) and workers (P = 0.0001) in that they secrete a series of long-chain esters, t he predominant ester being decyl decanoate. A. m. capensis workers differed significantly (P = 0.0001) from A. m. capensis mated queens, as did pseudo queens (P = 0.001), in their tergal gland secretion profiles. Significant i nter-racial differences were found between the tergal gland secretions of m ated queens (P = 0.0001) and workers (P 0.001) from the two contiguous Afri can races, but not between the virgin queens (P 0.39). Consequently, mated queens and workers of these two African races can be separated on their ter gal gland secretion profiles.