ArticleProceedings. Biological sciences2015
A conserved class of queen pheromones? Re-evaluating the evidence in bumblebees (Bombus impatiens).
Article in Proceedings. Biological sciences, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 48 citations in OpenAlex.
- The origin and maintenance of division of labour in an Indian paper wasp.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Substances in the mandibular glands mediate queen effects on larval development and colony organization in an annual bumble bee.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Land-use-associated stressors interact to reduce bumblebee health at the individual and colony level.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023Article
- The rate of DNA synthesis in ovaries, fat body cells, and pericardial cells of the bumblebee (Frontiers in physiology · 2023Article
- Bumble bee (Bombus impatiens) survival, pollen usage, and reproduction are not affected by oxalate oxidase at realistic concentrations in American chestnut (Castanea dentata) pollen.Transgenic research · 2021Article
- Bumble bee queen pheromones are context-dependent.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Bombus (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Microcolonies as a Tool for Biological Understanding and Pesticide Risk Assessment.Environmental entomology · 2019Review
- Queen Recognition Signals in Two Primitively Eusocial Halictid Bees: Evolutionary Conservation and Caste-Specific Perception.Insects · 2019Article
- Do Bumble Bees Produce Brood Pheromones?Journal of chemical ecology · 2019Article
- Queen and king recognition in the subterranean termite, Reticulitermes flavipes: Evidence for royal recognition pheromones.PloS one · 2019Article
- Reproductive Dominance Strategies in Insect Social Parasites.Journal of chemical ecology · 2018Review
- Preface: Pheromone-Mediation of Female Reproduction and Reproductive Dominance in Social Species.Journal of chemical ecology · 2018Article
- Chemical Communication and Reproduction Partitioning in Social Wasps.Journal of chemical ecology · 2018Review
- Chemical Characterization of Young Virgin Queens and Mated Egg-Laying Queens in the Ant Cataglyphis cursor: Random Forest Classification Analysis for Multivariate Datasets.Journal of chemical ecology · 2018Article
- Chemical Heterogeneity in Inbred European Population of the Invasive Hornet Vespa velutina nigrithorax.Journal of chemical ecology · 2017Article
- Do Bumble Bee, Bombus impatiens, Queens Signal their Reproductive and Mating Status to their Workers?Journal of chemical ecology · 2017Article
- Article
- Conservation of Queen Pheromones Across Two Species of Vespine Wasps.Journal of chemical ecology · 2016Article
- Chemical communication is not sufficient to explain reproductive inhibition in the bumblebeeRoyal Society open science · 2016Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
3 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The regulation of reproductive division of labour is a key component in the evolution of social insects. Chemical signals are important mechanisms to regulate worker reproduction, either as queen-produced pheromones that coercively inhibit worker reproduction or as queen signals that honestly advertise her fecundity. A recent study suggested that a conserved class of hydrocarbons serve as queen pheromones across three independent origins of eusociality. In bumblebees (Bombus terrestris), pentacosane (C25) was suggested to serve as a queen pheromone. Here, we repeat these studies using a different species of bumblebee (Bombus impatiens) with a more controlled experimental design. Instead of dequeened colonies, we used same-aged, three-worker queenless groups comprising either experienced or naive workers (with/without adult exposure to queen pheromone). We quantified three hydrocarbons (C23, C25 and C27) on the cuticular surfaces of females and tested their effects on the two worker types. Our results indicate differences in responses of naive and experienced workers, genetic effects on worker reproduction, and general effects of hydrocarbons and duration of egg laying on ovary resorption rates. However, we found no evidence to support the theory that a conserved class of hydrocarbons serve as queen pheromones or queen signals in Bombus impatiens.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.