Virgin Queen

Grant, Robin. "Elizabethan opera to Dee for Christopher Morley gets the lowdown on the Virgin Queen from Robin Grant." Birmingham Post, 3 Mar 2005. 

Hibbert, Christopher. The Virgin Queen Elizabeth I, genius of the Golden Age. Reading (MA) Addison-Wesley, 1991. 

Bumblebee males mark objects on their flight paths with secretions from the labial glands [ 126,127]. Although these marks can be attractive to both males and virgin queens, and are chemically well characterized in several species, the specific components responsible for attraction remain unknown. 

In the two sympatric races of honey bee in South Africa, queen-mimicking workers of Apis mellifera capensis invade queenright A. m. scutellata colonies and become a reproductive parasite. These pseudoqueens are not removed by workers or suppressed by the resident queen, and lay eggs that are acceptable to the colony [130]. Interestingly, these pseudoqueens may also fight to the death with the resident queen as multiple virgin queens do in a typical colony [131]. 

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). 

Carlin, N. and Holldobler, B. (1988). Influence of virgin queens on kin recognition in the carpenter ant Camponotus floridanus (Hymenoptera Formicidae). Insectes Soc., 35, 191-197. 

Differences between queens and workers are also present in meliponine bees. Physogastric queens differ from virgin queens and workers in Melipona bicolor (Abdalla et al., 2003). Strong differences between virgin queens and workers are present in Melipona scutel-laris, but unfortunately no mated physogastric queen was included in the analysis (Kerr et al., 2004). 

Other possibilities for differences are simple -alkanes. Aphaenogaster cockerelli queens and reproductive workers produce -tricosane, -pentacosane, -heptacosane and n-nonacosane (Smith et al., 2008 Figure 13.2). These compounds do not occur in workers but represent about 33% of the profile of the reproductive queens. The quantitative difference between mated reproductive queens and virgin, non-reproductive queens of Ectatomma tuberculatum is represented by -heptacosane, which contributes up to 50% of the old queen profile versus 4% in virgin queens (Hora et al, 2008). This suggests that the structural simplicity of -alkanes does not prevent discrimination of these compounds (see also Chapter 10). 

Oettler, J., Schmitt, T., Herzner, G. and Heinze, J. (2008). Chemical profiles of mated and virgin queens, egg-laying intermorphs and workers of the ant Crematogaster smithi. J. Ins. Physiol., 54, 672-679. 

Antimony was purified with iron or Mars, just as in the modem industrial process of extracting antimony from stibnite ore. When they saw the pure white vapor of antimony rise, the alchemists likened it to a white virgin queen, the moon goddess, and called it the Philosophers Mercury. This Mercury should not be confused with metallic Mercury, which is always poisonous if used alchemically. 

The Virgin Queen, Astraea, symbolized Elizabeth I. Romantic Elizabethans thought that Astraea s return to earth would inaugurate a golden age of virtue, justice, peace and plenty. This age, the Age of Aquarius, is nowadays approaching. 

The Tudor rose of Edward VI emerged from a pomegranate, the Israelite symbol of royalty and fertility. Queen Elizabeth I s Tudor rose bore the motto Rosa sine spina or rose without a thorn. It symbolized her identification with the Virgin Queen. 

The supernova in Cassiopeia was particularly unique, as this constellation was the heavenly body specifically regarded as the Celestial or Virgin Queen Cassiopeia is one of the titles of Isis, the Queen of Ethiopia who is the Popess of the Tarot. 

Fletcher, D. J. C. and Blum, M. S. (1981) Pheromonal control of dealation and oOgenesis in virgin queen fire ants. Sciencey 212, 73-5. 

Following is the structural formula of the Queen substance, a substance secreted by the mandibular gland of queen honeybees. It inhibits the development of ovaries in worker bees, prevenfs queen cells formation, and attracts male bees (drones) to virgin queens for the purpose of mating. Write the lUPAC name of this compound. 

Ostovich, Helen. Here in this garden The Iconography of the Virgin Queen in Shakespeare s Richard IT. a Marian Moments in Early Modem Drama. Edited by Regina Buccola and Lisa Hopkins. Burlington Ashgate, 2007. pp. 21-34. 

Several Cjo acids are important in honeybees. (2 )-9-Oxodecenoic acid is the sex attractant of the virgin queen. After mating the fertile queen produces a mixture of this and four other substances (Figure 3.32), each weakly active alone, as components of the queen substance which prevents queen cell construction by workers and a number of other actions which signal the presence of a dominant reproductive queen. Both enantiomers of 9-hydroxydecenoic acid have to be present for highest activity, a rare example of synergism between enantiomers in insect... 

---