Pheromones social insect queens

Keller, L. and Nonacs, P. (1993). The role of queen pheromones in social insects - Queen control or queen Signal. Animal Behav., 45, 787-794. 

In social insect and social mammal species such as honey bees and naked mole rats, only one female reproduces. In social insects, queen pheromone signals may be honest cooperative signals, not control. Might these ideas apply to social mammals ... 

Slessor KN,Foster LJ,Winston ML (1998) Royal flavours honeybee queen pheromones. In Vander Meer RK, Breed MD, Espelie KE, Winston ML (eds) Pheromone communication in social insects ants, wasps, bees and termites. Westview Press, Boulder, Colorado 331... 

The best understood of the sexual pheromones of social insects is the queen substance of honeybees. Interestingly, the queen substance used for queen control inside the nest is also the substance used by virgin queens to attract drones for mating. Callow and Johnston (1960) and Barbier and Lederer (1960) identified 9-keto-2(E)-decenoic acid ([E]-9-oxodec-2-enoic acid) (9-ODA) as major components of the queen mandibular glands. 9-Hydroxy-2(E)-decenoic acid is also present (Callow et al., 1964) and together both attract drones. Additional components of the queen retinue pheromone have recently been identified (Keeling et al., 2003). 

Slessor, K.N., Foster, L. J. and Winston, M. L. (1998). Royal flavours honey bee queen pheromones. In Pheromone Communication in Social Insects - Ants, Wasps, Bees, and Termites, ed. R. K. Vander Meer, M. D. Breed, K. E. Espelie and M.L. Winston. Boulder, CO Westview Press, pp. 331-343. 

The honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) is a social insect. The complex communication network underlying the social organization and behavior of honeybee colonies is primarily governed by pheromones released by the queen, the adult workers, and... 

Honey bee queens produce a rectal secretion which repels aggressive workers in the colony as an example of an intraspecific repellent (1 6). If such pheromonal repellents are commonly produced by social insects, a cornucopia of deterrent natural products awaits identification in the exocrine secretions of these arthropods. 

This chemical language can be mimicked with organic chemistry . .. A. Van Oystaeyen et al. Conserved class of queen pheromones stops social insect workers from reproducing. 2014. Science 343(6168), p. 287. DOI 10.1126/science.l244899. 

Despite the importance of such pheromones for the understanding of insect sociality, very little is yet known about them (Le Conte and Hefetz, 2008). So far, in only one species (i.e. the honeybee), has it been shown that a pheromone emitted by a reproductive prevents worker reproduction. In the honeybee, Apis mellifera, it has been suggested that the queen mandibular pheromone (QMP) causes worker ovarian inhibition (Butler and Fairey, 1963). 

---