Cued in: Honey bee pheromones as information flow and collective decision-making

Abstract

Recent studies using diverse disciplines ranging from classical behavioral assays to quantitative trait locus mapping, have revealed that chemical communication in honey bees is generally complex. Pheromones that are blends of multiple components are the rule rather than the exception. Subsets of multiple component blends regulate common and different systems. Reviewed are recent studies in pheromone regulation of colony defense, foraging ontogeny, and retinue behavior. Honey bee chemical communication is discussed as an emergent property of a complex system with dynamic properties calling for a complex systems approach of analysis.