E-β-Ocimene, a Volatile Brood Pheromone Involved in Social Regulation in the Honey Bee Colony (Apis mellifera)

Abstract

In this way, young larvae are able to assign precedence to the task of foraging by workers in order to increase food stores for their own development. Thus, in the complexity of honey bee chemical communication, E-β-ocimene, a pheromone of young larvae, provides the brood with the means to express their nutritional needs to the workers.