| Title: | Bumble bees alert to food with pheromone from tergal gland |
| Author(s): | Dornhaus A; Brockmann A; Chittka L; |
| Address: | "Department of Behavioral Physiology and Sociobiology, University of Wurzburg, Germany. a.dornhaus@bristol.ac.uk" |
| Journal Title: | J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol |
| DOI: | 10.1007/s00359-002-0374-y |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 0340-7594 (Print) 0340-7594 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Foragers of Bombus terrestris are able to alert their nestmates to the presence of food sources. It has been supposed that this happens at least partially through the distribution of a pheromone inside the nest. We substantiate this claim using a behavioral test in which an alerting signal is transmitted from one colony to another by long distance air transport, so excluding all other modalities of information exchange. We then investigated the source of the pheromone and were able to show that a hexane extract from tergites V-VII of bumble bee workers elicits higher activity, like a successful forager does. Extracts from other glands, such as the mandibular, labial, hypopharyngeal, and Dufour's gland as well as extracts from other parts of the cuticle had no effect. This suggests that bumble bees possess a pheromone-producing gland, similar to the Nasanov gland in honey bees. Indeed, an extract from the honey bee Nasanov gland also proved to alert bumble bee workers, suggesting a possible homology of the glands" |
| Keywords: | Animals Bees Endocrine Glands/*metabolism Exocrine Glands/metabolism Feeding Behavior/*drug effects *Food Hypopharynx/metabolism Insect Hormones/biosynthesis/classification Mandible/metabolism Motor Activity/drug effects Pheromones/*pharmacology Time Fact; |
| Notes: | "MedlineDornhaus, A Brockmann, A Chittka, L eng Comparative Study Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Germany 2003/01/28 J Comp Physiol A Neuroethol Sens Neural Behav Physiol. 2003 Jan; 189(1):47-51. doi: 10.1007/s00359-002-0374-y. Epub 2002 Dec 11" |
