> A lack of e-beta-ocimene would signal to the emerging worker that the colony was in survival mode, and not in need of nurses.

Not only that, but as Crailsheim writes:

Colonies without pollen supply maintain
brood rearing only for a short time, first by using
up the stored bee bread and later by depleting
their body reserves (Haydak, 1935). Honey
bees have developed a mechanism to react to
changes in the ratio of pollen supply and protein
demand of brood: they cannibalize brood
and thereby gain protein which they use to
feed other larvae. Young larvae, in which little
investment has been made up to that point, are
cannibalized, and older larvae are maintained. 
If the pollen dearth continues, no more brood can be
produced.

Colonies terminate brood rearing rather than produce 
malnourished pupae, and according to Imdorf et al. (1998) 
this maintains the quality of pupae that are produced.

Apidologie 41 (2010) 278–294

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