Insights into reproductive processes and hierarchies within social insect societies

Authors: Okosun, Olabimpe; YUSUF, ABDULLAHI - University Of Pretoria; CREWE, ROBIN - University Of Pretoria; PIRK, CHRISTIAN - University Of Pretoria

Submitted to: International Society of Chemical Ecology Meeting
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 6/3/2021
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Insect pollinators are beneficial to global agriculture, and any threat associated to the loss of honeybee colonies will greatly affect food security and ecosystem services. Pheromonal communication in honey bees is a key mechanism in regulating reproductive behaviour and dominance, in particular but not limited to the queen over workers, which ensures the stability and integrity of the colony. The disruption of pheromonal communication and social cohesion within the social insects could lead to loss of the colony. The aim of this study is to determine how honey bee workers that become reproductively active, exploit pheromonal communication to their advantage and how pheromones contribute to reproductive dominance and reproductive hierarchies. The results showed that usurpers within the honey bee colonies such as reproductive active workers uses secretions from diverse glands synergistically or additively to achieve dominance in the absence of the honey bee queen.

Technical Abstract: The stability and integrity of the social insects’ colony are established through effective pheromonal communication to regulate reproductive behavior and dominance. Under normal conditions, the queen is the only one reproducing with group of functionally sterile workers. However, some honey bee workers do escape the reproductive regulatory mechanism and become reproductively active. This study investigated how honey bee workers that become reproductively active, exploit pheromonal communication to their advantage and how pheromones contribute to reproductive dominance and reproductive hierarchies. The results provide evidence for the establishment of reproductive dominance through pheromones from diverse glandular secretions acting synergistically or additively to regulate various processes in the colony. These complex interplay of pheromonal signals from different exocrine glands have both primer and releaser effects among the honey bee groups. This study provides further understanding into how pheromones from various glandular secretions contribute to the evolution of reproductive dominance and reproductive division of labour within social insect societies.