going back a few years

Control of Dimorphism in the Female Honeybee 

The female egg of the honeybee can develop into either a queen or a worker, and the direction of differentiation depends primarily, if not entirely, on the food received during larval life. Queen bees can be reared in an incubator by feeding larvae on royal jelly removed from the cells of queen larvae that are being fed by bees in the hive. 

Compounds in royal jelly are labile, and during storage royal jelly loses its ability to produce queens, and ultimately, to support larval growth. Royal jelly has been fractionated, and a fraction that is necessary for the differentiation of queens has been separated. When the active fraction is omitted from the diet, but all other fractions are recombined, only normal workers, or slightly queen-like workers, are produced. When all fractions are recombined the same percentage of larvae develop into queens as develop on whole, fresh royal jelly under the same conditions of feeding. The nature of the action of the active fraction is not understood. Its absence seems to destroy the growth or differentiation regulating mechanism in some of the larvae. The same effect has not been obtained in experiments on the balance of nutrients. 

NEVIN WEAVER 
Texas Agricultural Experiment Station, College Station 

Weaver, N. (1962, January). CONTROL OF DIMORPHISM IN FEMALE HONEYBEE. 
Science (Vol. 138, No. 3544, p. 995). AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE.

to be continued ...

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