State of the art in honeybee chemical ecology

Chemical communication is one of the most fascinating aspects of social insect biology as they use primer and releaser pheromones both strongly involved in development and social regulations of the colony. When many releaser pheromones were discovered in the animal kingdom, only a few primer pheromones, modulating the physiology of the recipient, have been identified, most of them in the honeybee Apis mellifera. The honeybee is probably one of the most extensively studied models in chemical ecology. Recent studies on honeybee pheromones suggest that chemical communication is much richer than we thought and deeply involved in social regulations. More than 50 chemical compounds have been identified having pheromonal effects on the honeybee. I will present a review of findings on releaser pheromones produced by the colony giving a special emphasis on the different primer pheromones and their interactions on social regulations between the different actors of the colony. The same pheromonal compound can be produced by different actors of the colony and triggers both releaser and primer effects. Honeybee pheromone signals can be described as complexity, synergy, and context dependency in which they are deployed, mediated through both temporal and spatial distribution. The importance of chemical communication will be describe in the framework of honey bee losses worldwide as stresses related to honeybee losses can act on chemical communication processes, modulating production or reception of the pheromonal compounds. Moreover, there are examples of the same chemical compound being used by both the host (honeybee) and the parasite (varroa). Finally, the major challenges for future research in the field of chemical communication in the honeybee will be presented for discussion.