Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®
Articles 1 - 1 of 1
Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
The Response Of Male Bumblebees To A Putative Queen Pheromone, Xavier K. Haemmerle
The Response Of Male Bumblebees To A Putative Queen Pheromone, Xavier K. Haemmerle
Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects
Queen pheromones are chemical signals produced by the dominant reproductive female in many species of eusocial insects. These pheromones are vital for maintaining a reproductive division of labor. Two evolutionary scenarios may describe the origin of queen pheromones. Sensory exploitation describes a scenario where the pheromone is produced to take advantage of a preexisting sensory bias in a population. An alternative scenario is that the recipient of the pheromone has an adapted response to a preexisting chemical signal. There is a growing body of evidence that cuticular hydrocarbons that act as queen pheromones are co-opted from ancient fertility signals that …