INHIBITION OF WORKER HONEYBEE OVARIES DEVELOPMENT BY A MIXTURE OF FATTY-ACID ESTERS FROM LARVAE

In a honeybee colony, the development of worker ovary and the oviposit ion behaviour are inhibited by the presence of the brood. The existenc e of a pheromone which elicits this inhibition has often been hypothes ized, but not identified. We have tested the role of a mixture fatty a cid esters (methyl and ethyl esters of palmitic, linoleic, linolenic, stearic and oleic acid) which are present on the larval cuticle an the worker ovaries development. A control and 3 treatments of esters whic h differred in their method of application (contact, diffusion, ingest ion) were tested. These 3 treatments each induced a strong inhibitory effect on ovary development compared to the controls. It is the first time that a primer brood pheromone is identified in hymenopterae.