The False-Queen: Fourth Adjustive Response in Dequeened Honeybee Colonies1)

Abstract

Dequeened honeybee colonies may produce a false-queen, which shows certain queen-like traits and is attended by other workers as if it were a true queen, though externally it is merely a normal worker, except for its slightly extended and polished abdomen. Certain observations on the behaviour of these false-queens are described. In one Apis cerana cerana queenless nucleus, the worker oviposition was almost ceased during the occurrence of a false-queen. The false-queen seems to be a response of dequeened workers, which try to reproduce the lost harmony of queen-worker differentiation essential to the life of colony.