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Queen Mandibular Pheromone
Queen mandibular pheromone, or QMP, is a honey bee pheromone produced by the queen and fed to her attendants who share it with the rest of the colony that gives the colony the sense of belonging to the queen. Newly emerged queens produce very little QMP. By the sixth day they are producing enough to attract drones for mating. A laying queen makes twice that amount. Lack of QMP seems to attract robber bees. A study of foraging worker bees has suggested that foraging bees are not attracted to QMP. Chemical composition Chemically, QMP is very diverse, with at least 17 major components and other minor ones. Five of these compounds are: 9-oxo-2-decenoic acid (9ODA), ''cis''- and ''trans''-9-hydroxydec-2-enoic acid (9HDA), methyl ''p''-hydroxybenzoate (HOB) and 4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenylethanol (HVA). Drones QMP functions as a sex pheromone for drones, attracting males to an unmated queen. 9ODA specifically is known to attract drones over long distances, and its combination with 9HDA ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pheromone
A pheromone () is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavior of the receiving individuals. There are ''alarm signal, alarm pheromones'', ''food trail pheromones'', ''sex pheromones'', and many others that affect behavior or physiology. Pheromones are used by many organisms, from basic unicellular prokaryotes to complex multicellular eukaryotes. Their use among insects has been particularly well documented. In addition, some vertebrates, plants and ciliates communicate by using pheromones. The ecological functions and evolution of pheromones are a major topic of research in the field of chemical ecology. Background The portmanteau word "pheromone" was coined by Peter Karlson and Martin Lüscher in 1959, based on the Greek φερω ''pheroo'' ('I carry') and ὁρμων ''hormon'' ('stimulating'). P ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Queen Bee
A queen bee is typically an adult, mated female (gyne) that lives in a colony or hive of honey bees. With fully developed reproductive organs, the queen is usually the mother of most, if not all, of the bees in the beehive. Queens are developed from larvae selected by worker bees and specially fed in order to become sexually mature. There is normally only one adult, mated queen in a hive, in which case the bees will usually follow and fiercely protect her. The term "queen bee" can be more generally applied to any dominant reproductive female in a colony of a eusocial bee species other than honey bees. However, as in the Brazilian stingless bee ''Schwarziana quadripunctata'', a single nest may have multiple queens or even dwarf queens, ready to replace a dominant queen in a case of sudden death. Development During the warm parts of the year, female "worker" bees leave the hive every day to collect nectar and pollen. While male bees serve no architectural or pollinating purpo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Methylparaben
Methylparaben, also methyl paraben, one of the parabens, is a preservative with the chemical formula CH3(C6H4(OH)COO). It is the methyl ester of ''p''-hydroxybenzoic acid. Natural occurrences Methylparaben serves as a pheromone for a variety of insects and is a component of queen mandibular pheromone. It is a pheromone in wolves produced during estrus associated with the behavior of alpha male wolves preventing other males from mounting females in heat. Uses Methylparaben is an anti-fungal agent often used in a variety of cosmetics and personal-care products. It is also used as a food preservative and has the E number E218. Methylparaben is commonly used as a fungicide in ''Drosophila'' food media at 0.1%. To ''Drosophila'', methylparaben is toxic at higher concentrations, has an estrogenic effect (mimicking estrogen in rats and having anti-androgenic activity), and slows the growth rate in the larval and pupal stages at 0.2%. Safety There is controversy about whether ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sex Pheromone
Sex pheromones are pheromones released by an organism to attract an individual of the same species, encourage them to mate with them, or perform some other function closely related with sexual reproduction. Sex pheromones specifically focus on indicating females for breeding, attracting the opposite sex, and conveying information on species, age, sex and genotype. Non-volatile pheromones, or cuticular contact pheromones, are more closely related to social insects as they are usually detected by direct contact with chemoreceptors on the antennae or feet of insects. Insect sex pheromones have found uses in pheromone trap , monitoring and trapping of pest insects. Evolution Sex pheromones have evolved in many species. The many types of pheromones (i.e. alarm, aggregation, defense, sexual attraction) all have a common cause acting as chemical cues to trigger a response. However, sex pheromones are particularly associated with signaling mating behaviors or dominance. The odors release ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antenna (biology)
Antennae ( antenna), sometimes referred to as "feelers", are paired appendages used for sensing in arthropods. Antennae are connected to the first one or two segments of the arthropod head. They vary widely in form but are always made of one or more jointed segments. While they are typically sensory organs, the exact nature of what they sense and how they sense it is not the same in all groups. Functions may variously include sensing touch, air motion, heat, vibration (sound), and especially smell or taste. Antennae are sometimes modified for other purposes, such as mating, brooding, swimming, and even anchoring the arthropod to a substrate. Larval arthropods have antennae that differ from those of the adult. Many crustaceans, for example, have free-swimming larvae that use their antennae for swimming. Antennae can also locate other group members if the insect lives in a group, like the ant. The common ancestor of all arthropods likely had one pair of uniramous (unbranched ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lymph
Lymph (from Latin, , meaning "water") is the fluid that flows through the lymphatic system, a system composed of lymph vessels (channels) and intervening lymph nodes whose function, like the venous system, is to return fluid from the tissues to be recirculated. At the origin of the fluid-return process, interstitial fluid—the fluid between the cells in all body tissues—enters the lymph capillaries. This lymphatic fluid is then transported via progressively larger lymphatic vessels through lymph nodes, where substances are removed by tissue lymphocytes and circulating lymphocytes are added to the fluid, before emptying ultimately into the right or the left subclavian vein, where it mixes with central venous blood. Because it is derived from interstitial fluid, with which blood and surrounding cells continually exchange substances, lymph undergoes continual change in composition. It is generally similar to blood plasma, which is the fluid component of blood. Lymph returns pro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hydrophilic
A hydrophile is a molecule or other molecular entity that is attracted to water molecules and tends to be dissolved by water.Liddell, H.G. & Scott, R. (1940). ''A Greek-English Lexicon'' Oxford: Clarendon Press. In contrast, hydrophobes are not attracted to water and may seem to be repelled by it. Hygroscopics ''are'' attracted to water, but are not dissolved by water. Molecules A hydrophilic molecule or portion of a molecule is one whose interactions with water and other polar substances are more thermodynamically favorable than their interactions with oil or other hydrophobic solvents. They are typically charge-polarized and capable of hydrogen bonding. This makes these molecules soluble not only in water but also in other polar solvents. Hydrophilic molecules (and portions of molecules) can be contrasted with hydrophobic molecules (and portions of molecules). In some cases, both hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties occur in a single molecule. An example of these amphiph ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olfactory Receptor Neuron
An olfactory receptor neuron (ORN), also called an olfactory sensory neuron (OSN), is a sensory neuron within the olfactory system. Structure Humans have between 10 and 20 million olfactory receptor neurons (ORNs). In vertebrates, ORNs are bipolar neurons with dendrites facing the external surface of the cribriform plate with axons that pass through the cribriform foramina with terminal end at olfactory bulbs. The ORNs are located in the olfactory epithelium in the nasal cavity. The cell bodies of the ORNs are distributed among all three of the stratified layers of the olfactory epithelium. Many tiny hair-like non-motile cilia protrude from the olfactory receptor cell's dendrites. The dendrites extend to the olfactory epithelial surface and each ends in a dendritic knob from which around 20 to 35 cilia protrude. The cilia have a length of up to 100 micrometres and with the cilia from other dendrites form a meshwork in the olfactory mucus. The surface of the cilia is cover ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Castes
Caste is a form of social stratification characterised by endogamy, hereditary transmission of a style of life which often includes an occupation, ritual status in a hierarchy, and customary social interaction and exclusion based on cultural notions of purity and pollution. * Quote: "caste ort., casta=basket ranked groups based on heredity within rigid systems of social stratification, especially those that constitute Hindu India. Some scholars, in fact, deny that true caste systems are found outside India. The caste is a closed group whose members are severely restricted in their choice of occupation and degree of social participation. Marriage outside the caste is prohibited. Social status is determined by the caste of one's birth and may only rarely be transcended." * Quote: "caste, any of the ranked, hereditary, endogamous social groups, often linked with occupation, that together constitute traditional societies in South Asia, particularly among Hindus in India. Althoug ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mushroom Bodies
The mushroom bodies or ''corpora pedunculata'' are a pair of structures in the brain of insects, other arthropods, and some annelids (notably the ragworm ''Platynereis dumerilii''). They are known to play a role in olfactory learning and memory. In most insects, the mushroom bodies and the lateral horn are the two higher brain regions that receive olfactory information from the antennal lobe via projection neurons. They were first identified and described by French biologist Félix Dujardin in 1850. Structure Mushroom bodies are usually described as neuropils, i.e. as dense networks of neuronal processes (dendrite and axon terminals) and glia. They get their name from their roughly hemispherical ''calyx'', a protuberance that is joined to the rest of the brain by a central nerve tract or ''peduncle''. Most of our current knowledge of mushroom bodies comes from studies of a few species of insect, especially the cockroach ''Periplaneta americana'', the honey bee ''Apis mellifera ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Queen Retinue Pheromone
Queen retinue pheromones (QRP) are a type of honey bee pheromones, so-called because one of their behavioral effects is to attract a circle of bees (a “retinue”) around the queen. In older literature, the queen pheromone is called ''mandibular pheromone'' because some of its components were first identified from the mandibular glands of queens. ''Retinue pheromone'' may be more accurate because the chemical mix in the pheromone comes from several glands. The following compounds have been identified as present in the QRP, of which, only coniferyl alcohol is found in the mandibular glands. The combination of the five QMP compounds and the four compounds below help create the retinue attraction of worker bees around their queen. * Methyl oleate * Coniferyl alcohol * Hexadecan-1-ol * Alpha-linolenic acid ''alpha''-Linolenic acid (ALA), also known as α-Linolenic acid (from Greek ''alpha'' meaning "first" and ''linon'' meaning flax), is an ''n''−3, or omega-3, essential fatt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pheromones
A pheromone () is a secreted or excreted chemical factor that triggers a social response in members of the same species. Pheromones are chemicals capable of acting like hormones outside the body of the secreting individual, to affect the behavior of the receiving individuals. There are ''alarm pheromones'', ''food trail pheromones'', ''sex pheromones'', and many others that affect behavior or physiology. Pheromones are used by many organisms, from basic unicellular prokaryotes to complex multicellular eukaryotes. Their use among insects has been particularly well documented. In addition, some vertebrates, plants and ciliates communicate by using pheromones. The ecological functions and evolution of pheromones are a major topic of research in the field of chemical ecology. Background The portmanteau word "pheromone" was coined by Peter Karlson and Martin Lüscher in 1959, based on the Greek φερω ''pheroo'' ('I carry') and ὁρμων ''hormon'' ('stimulating'). Pheromones ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
