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Modulation of alarm pheromone perception in the honey bee: evidence for division of labor based on hormonall regulated response thresholds

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Summary

Treatment of 1-day-old worker honey bees with the juvenile hormone analog methoprene prematurely reduced their behavioral threshold sensitivity to alarm pheromones. Electroantennogram assays indicated that peripheral perception was not affected; the effects apparently occurred in the central nervous system. These results support a model (Robinson 1987) of division of labor based on the hormonal regulation of response thresholds to task-associated stimuli. Coupled with other studies (Breed 1983; Robinson 1985), they also suggest that: 1) aggression in the honey bee is hormonally mediated and 2) a single hormone is involved in both the production and perception of an olfactory communication signal, the first report of this phenomenon in an invertebrate.

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Abbreviations

JH :

juvenile hormone

CNS :

central nervous system

EAG :

electroantennogram

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Author notes

  1. Gene E. Robinson

    Present address: Department of Entomology, The Ohio State University, 1735 Neil Avenue, 43210-1220, Columbus, Ohio, USA

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  1. Department of Entomology, Cornell University, 14853, Ithaca, New York, USA

    Gene E. Robinson

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  1. Gene E. Robinson
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Robinson, G.E. Modulation of alarm pheromone perception in the honey bee: evidence for division of labor based on hormonall regulated response thresholds. J. Comp. Physiol. 160, 613–619 (1987). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00611934

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