Author/Editor     Kralj, Jasna; Božič, Janko
Title     Activity of attendants after licking and palpating the queen in honeybee (Apis mellifera carnica)
Type     članek
Source     Neth J Zool
Vol. and No.     Letnik 51, št. 4
Publication year     2001
Volume     str. 415-9
Language     eng
Abstract     A worker-queen contact in the retinue of the honeybee (Apis mellifera) enables transfer of queen pheromones to workers. Behaviours of workers attending the queen and postcontact behaviours were recorded. The most commonly observed activities of workers in retinue were licking and antennating the queen. Those activities were interrupted with bouts of self-grooming, which was the most frequently observed activity of licking attendants. Immediately after leaving, the queen workers which had licked the queen, self-groomed longer and more frequently than workers which had antennated the queen. Licking post-retinue workers walked significantly faster and rested less frequently than palpating post-retinue workers, which suggest that licking attendants are most effective in the pheromone transfer accomplished by accidental encounters with other nestmates.
Descriptors     BEES
BEHAVIOR, ANIMAL
PHEROMONES