Nestmate Recognition Cues in the Honey Bee: Differential Importance of Cuticular Alkanes and Alkenes

Abstract

In social insects, recognition of nestmates from aliens is based on olfactory cues, and many studies have demonstrated that such cues are contained within the lipid layer covering the insect cuticle. These lipids are usually a complex mixture of tens of compounds in which aliphatic hydrocarbons are generally the major components. The experiments described here tested whether artificial changes in the cuticular profile through supplementation of naturally occurring alkanes and alkenes in honeybees affect the behaviour of nestmate guards. Compounds were applied to live foragers in microgram quantities and the bees returned to their hive entrance where the behaviour of the guard bees was observed. In this fashion we compared the effect of single alkenes with that of single alkanes; the effect of mixtures of alkenes versus that of mixtures of alkanes and the whole alkane fraction separated from the cuticular lipids versus the alkene fraction. With only one exception (the comparison between n-C(19) and (Z)9-C(19)), in all the experiments bees treated with alkenes were attacked more intensively than bees treated with alkanes. This leads us to conclude that modification of the natural chemical profile with the two different classes of compounds has a different effect on acceptance and suggests that this may correspond to a differential importance in the recognition signature.

Nest-mate recognition in Manuelia postica (Apidae: Xylocopinae): an eusocial trait is present in a solitary bee

“…Bioassays developed in eusocial hymenopterans in which cuticular compounds have been removed and reapplied, or have been modified by the addition of compounds from external sources, have pointed to cuticular hydrocarbons as nest-mate recognition pheromones (Dani et al 2001(Dani et al , 2005Ruther et al 2002). Our results are unequivocal about the central role that cuticular compounds play in nest-mate recognition in M. postica.…”

Recognition errors by honey bee (Apis mellifera) guards demonstrate overlapping cues in conspecific recognition

“…Analyses show that their composition varies less within a colony than between different colonies Singer, 1998). Of the different categories of hydrocarbons, alkenes might be of more biological relevance than alkanes (Dani, 2005), and workers have been shown to be able to discriminate alkenes better than alkanes (Chaline et al, 2005). Of interest to us, however, would be compounds that differ between the cuticles of honey bee and the common wasp workers (Butts et al, 1991;Steinmetz et al, 2003, Dani et al, 2004Dani, 2005).…”

Evidence for antiseptic behaviour towards sick adult bees in honey bee colonies

“…These findings, together with the fact that several branchedalkanes and alkenes, compounds involved in chemical recognition (Dani et al, 2005), changing with health conditions, suggest that the CHC profiles are likely to be critical in the detection of sick individuals in beehives. Cuticular hydrocarbon profiles can be altered by activation of the immune system and their changes mediated through hygienic and undertaking behaviours in honeybees (Salvy et al, 2001;Richard et al, 2008;Evans and Spivak, 2010).…”