A hallmark of eusociality is cooperative brood care. In most social insect systems brood rearing labor is divided between individuals working in the nest tending the queen and larvae, and foragers collecting food outside the nest. To place brood rearing division of labor within an evolutionary context, it is necessary to understand relationships between individuals in the nest engaged in brood care and colony growth in the honey bee. Here we examined responses of the queen, queen-worker interactions, and nursing behaviors to an increase in the brood rearing stimulus environment using brood pheromone. Colony pairs were derived from a single source and were headed by open-mated sister queens, for a total of four colony pairs. One colony of a pair was treated with 336 µg of brood pheromone, and the other a blank control. Queens in the brood pheromone treated colonies laid significantly more eggs, were fed longer, and were less idle compared to controls. Workers spent significantly more time cleaning cells in pheromone treatments. Increasing the brood rearing stimulus environment with the addition of brood pheromone significantly increased the tempo of brood rearing behaviors by bees working in the nest resulting in a significantly greater amount of brood reared.

中文翻译：

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育雏信息素调节育雏行为对蜜蜂 (Apis mellifera L.) 菌落生长的影响

社会性的一个标志是合作育雏。在大多数社会昆虫系统中，育雏工作由在巢中照料蜂王和幼虫的个体和在巢外采集食物的觅食者分工。要将育雏分工置于进化背景下，有必要了解巢中从事育雏护理的个体与蜜蜂群落生长之间的关系。在这里，我们研究了蜂王、蜂后互动和护理行为对使用育雏信息素增加育雏刺激环境的反应。菌落对来自单一来源，由开放交配的姐妹皇后领导，总共有四个菌落对。一对中的一个用 336 µg 的育雏信息素处理，另一个用空白对照。与对照组相比，经过育雏信息素处理的蜂群产下的卵明显更多，喂食时间更长，而且闲置时间更少。工人们在信息素处理中花费了更多的时间来清洁细胞。通过添加育雏信息素来增加育雏刺激环境显着增加了蜜蜂在巢中工作的育雏行为的节奏，从而导致饲养的育雏量显着增加。