Inhibiting Aversions to Queen Bees

A compound produced by honeybee queens known as homovanillyl alcohol (HVA) may prevent aversions on the part of worker bees as spelled out in a Nature article titled Queen bees avert the sting in the tail Honeybee queens may use scent to stay popular in negative situations (published online: 19 July 2007; | doi:10.1038/news070716-14). Article author Heidi Ledford jokes that politicians would love to get their hands on chemicals like the ones at the disposal of the queens and for good reasons. Workers feed and groom queens and also apparently overlook negative experiences resulting from encounters with queens. Test results from a referenced study indicate that, although workers respond to a nasty encounter, they don't learn to associate it with adversity toward the queen.

The experiment, on which conclusions are based, entailed administering mild electrical shocks that were associated with a specified odor. A stinger extension was an observed effect. After some repetitions stinger responses were induced merely through the sense of smell- except when the odor was associated with the queen. Specifically, exposure to pheromones of the queen, particularly homovanillyl alcohol (HVA), were not linked to the electric shocks.

Experimental findings are consistent with observed beehive behavior. There are worker bees who groom the queen with their proboscises. They also use their antennae to rub the queen. In performing these functions they come in contact with compounds that are found on the surface of the queen's body. In this way queen pheromones can be distributed to other bees in the hive when the queen attendant workers mix with them. This has a calming effect on worker bees. Further reinforcing the point is the observation that young worker bees become less aggressive when a queen is put in the colony.