Assessing the role of beta-ocimene in regulating foraging behavior of the honey bee, Apis mellifera Academic Article

abstract

• 2015, INRA, DIB and Springer-Verlag France. The larval pheromone (E)--ocimene (EBO) inhibits worker ovary development and accelerates the behavioral transition from nursing to foraging in the honey bee, Apis mellifera. Because EBO diffuses throughout the hive, it has been hypothesized that honey bee workers can use it to indirectly assess brood abundance. Here, we evaluate this hypothesis by testing whether EBO plays a role in the regulation of worker foraging activity. We exposed paired colonies to a pulse of either synthetic -ocimene or paraffin oil control and recorded the subsequent number of pollen and non-pollen foragers returning to the colony. Exposure to synthetic -ocimene moderately but significantly increased overall foraging activity, but not pollen foraging. For pollen foraging, the effect of pheromone treatment was the greatest directly after pheromone exposure.

authors

• Rangel Posada, Juliana

published proceedings

• APIDOLOGIE

altmetric score

• 2.5

author list (cited authors)

• Ma, R., Mueller, U. G., & Rangel, J.

citation count

• 14

complete list of authors

• Ma, Rong||Mueller, Ulrich G||Rangel, Juliana

publication date

• January 2016

publisher

• Springer Nature  Publisher

published in

• Apidologie  Journal

keywords

• Apis Mellifera
• Beta-ocimene
• Honey Bee Foraging
• Synthetic Pheromone
• Volatility

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)

• 10.1007/s13592-015-0382-x

start page

• 135

end page

• 144

volume

• 47

issue

• 1

URL

• http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s13592-015-0382-x