Do Bumble Bees Produce Brood Pheromones?

Reproductive division of labor, a defining feature of social insects, is often regulated by a combination of behavioral and chemical means. It is hypothesized that behavioral interactions play a more important role in regulating reproduction of primitive eusocial species, while pheromones are typically used by large sized, advanced eusocial species. Here we examined if worker reproduction in the primitively eusocial species Bombus impatiens is...