Perception of the Queen by Workers in the Honeybee Colony

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Abstract
Workers gathered on cages containing a mated laying queen placed above a normal queenright colony. Fewer workers gathered on a cage when they could not touch the caged queen, or when she was dead, or when her mandibular glands had been removed. The number of workers on the cage was correlated with the amount of 9-oxodecenoic acid in the queen's head. Workers gathered on cages containing only 9-oxodecenoic acid on filter-paper that the bees could not touch. “Court” formation round a free queen was not diminished by removing her mandibular glands. The head of queens whose mandibular glands had been removed contained traces of 9-oxodecenoic acid. No hitherto unknown substance affecting worker bees' behaviour was detected in the queen's head. No sounds likely to be specifically communicative were heard from the queen or from workers that formed a “court” round her. Workers did not move from afar to form a “court” round a queen. It is concluded that in an undisturbed colony with a mated laying queen there is no attraction of workers towards the queen except over very short distances.