Egg-marking pheromones in honey-bees Apis mellifera - Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology

• Foster KR, Ratnieks FLW (2000) Facultative worker policing in a wasp. Nature 407:692–693

  Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

• Foster KR, Ratnieks FLW (2001) Convergent evolution of worker policing by egg eating in the honeybee and common wasp. Proc R Soc Lond Ser B Biol Sci 268:169–174

  Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

• Halling L, Oldroyd BP, Wattanachaiyingcharoen W, Barron AB, Nanoik P, Wongsiri S (2001) Worker policing in the dwarf bee Apis florea. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 49:509–513

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Katzav-Gozansky T, Soroker V, Hefetz A (1997) Plasticity of caste-specific Dufour’s gland secretion in the honey bee (Apis mellifera L.). Naturwissenshaften 84:238–241

  Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

• Katzav-Gozansky T, Soroker V, Hefetz A (2002) Evolution of worker sterility in honey bees: egg-laying workers express queen-like secretion in Dufour’s gland. Behav Ecol Sociobiol (in press)

• Keller L, Nonacs P (1993) The role of queen pheromones in social insects: queen control or queen signal? Anim Behav 45:787–794

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Oldroyd BP, Osborne KE (1999) The evolution of worker sterility in honeybees: the genetic basis of failure of worker policing. Proc R Soc Lond B 266:1335–1339

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Oldroyd BP, Ratnieks FLW (2000) Anarchistic honey bee workers evade worker policing by laying eggs that have low removal rates. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 47:268–273

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Oldroyd BP, Halling LA, Good G, Wattanachaingcharoen W, Barron AB, Nanork P, Wongsiri S, Ratnieks FL (2001) Worker policing and worker reproduction in Apis cerana. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 50:371–377

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Ratnieks FLW (1988) Reproductive harmony via mutual policing by workers in eusocial Hymenoptera. Am Nat 132:217–236

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Ratnieks FLW (1992) Evidence for an egg-marking pheromone in the honey bee. Am Bee J 132:813

  Google Scholar 

• Ratnieks FLW (1993) Egg-laying, egg-removal, and ovary development by workers in queenright honey bee colonies. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 32:191–198

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Ratnieks FLW (1995) Evidence for queen-produced egg-marking pheromone and its use in worker policing in the honey bee. J Apic Res 34:31–37

  Google Scholar 

• Ratnieks FLW (1999) Conflict and cooperation in insect societies. In: Schwarz MP, Hogendoorn K (eds) Social insects at the turn of the Millenium. 13th Congress of the International Union for the Study of Social Insects, Adelaide

• Ratnieks FLW, Reeve HK (1992) Conflict in single-queen Hymenopteran societies: the structure of conflict, and processes that reduce conflict in advanced eusocial species. J Theor Biol 158:33–65

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Ratnieks FLW, Visscher PK (1989) Worker policing in honeybees. Nature 342:796–797

  Article  Google Scholar 

• Seeley TD (1985) Honeybee ecology. Princeton University Press, Princeton

  Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors and Affiliations

1. School of Biological Sciences A12, University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia

   Benjamin P. Oldroyd

2. Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, S10 2TN, Sheffield, UK

   Francis L. W. Ratnieks

3. Department of Zoology and Entomology, University of Pretoria, 0002, Pretoria, South Africa

   T. C. Wossler

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Benjamin P. Oldroyd.

Cite this article

Oldroyd, B.P., Ratnieks, F.L.W. & Wossler, T.C. Egg-marking pheromones in honey-bees Apis mellifera . Behav Ecol Sociobiol 51, 590–591 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-002-0480-4

Download citation

• Received: 19 March 2001

• Revised: 12 November 2001

• Accepted: 05 December 2001

• Published: 23 March 2002

• Issue Date: May 2002

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-002-0480-4

Keywords