NEST-ENTRANCE MARKING WITH PHEROMONES BY HONEYBEE-APIS MELLIFERA L AND BY A WASP VESPULA VULGARIS L

Crawling worker honeybees, apparently involuntarily, deposit a 'footprint substance' that attracts other workers and stimulates them to enter the hive. Homecoming honeybees are also attracted by an odour in the hive atmosphere which may be that of 'footprint substance'. T his 'footprint' pherornone, which is certainly perceived olfactorily and possibly also chemotactically, is persistent but probably not colony specific. Although deposited by the feet, it is probably produced by glands on most parts of a bee's body. Workers of the social wasp, V. vulgaris, also deposit a 'footprint' pheromone that attracts homecoming wasps but not worker honeybees. Similarly, the 'footprint' pheromone of honeybees does not attract worker wasps. It is suggested that many kinds of social insects, and perhaps some solitary ones, involuntarily mark the entrances of their nests with 'footprint pheromones. © 1969.