Bee-3

Pheromones

The integrity of the colony is maintained by chemical secretion, or pheromones. Worker secrete pheromones from the Nasanov gland at the tip of the abdomen when they cluster, enter a new nesting site, or mark a source of nectar or water. The colony scent is recognizable by bees of the same colony because or its unique combination of components derived from the colony's particular collection of nectar and pollen.

 

When queens fly to mate, a mandibular-gland pheromones attracts the drones. The same produces an other pheromones, called queen substance, which worker lick from the queen's body and pass along as they exchange food with each other. The eaten pheromones in inadequate, the colony produces queen cells to supersede her.

 

The mandibular glands of workers produce an alarm odor, which serves to alert the colony when it is released at the site of the sting odor, which is released at sting area. Stingless bees bite leaves at intervals along their flight path to provide a scent trail of mandibular secretion.

 

Dance Language

The ability of honeybees to communicate direction and distance from the hive to nectar sources through dance "language" has received widespread attention. In 1973, Karl von Frisch received a Nobel Price for deciphering the language which consist of two basic dances; a dance in circle, for indicating sources without reference to specific distance or direction; and a tail-wagging dance, in straight run with abdominal wagging, the fewer runs per minute, the further away the source. Wing vibrations produce sounds at the same rate at the tail wagging and are have developed a robot "bee" that can communicate with other bees in this way.

 

The direction, or azimuth, to the food source is indicated by the angle of the wagging dance angle to the sun. Bees use the plane of polarization of the sunlight. Even when the sun is obscured by clouds, bees can detect the position of the sun from the polarized light emanating from brighter patches of sky.

 

Honeybees also have a built-in clock that appears to be synchronized with the store of nectar in flowers. Hence, honeybees making the rounds of flowers in search of nectar always seem to be at the right place at the right time.