A Closerlook: TARSAL GLANDS/ FOOTPRINT PHEROMONE

摘要

When honey bees walk across a surface, their feet often deposit an attractive, oily, colorless secretion that has a low volatility. This secretion has been shown to affect the behavior of other workers, thus is considered to be a pheromone. This chemical has been termed "footprint pheromone' or "trail pheromone." The secretion is believed to originate from the tarsal (Arnhart) glands. These glands are located in the 5th tarsomere of the fore-, mid- and hind-legs of adult honey bee queens, workers anddrones. Their structural features are not caste or sex specific. The tarsal glands have the shape of a flattened sac within each of the last tarsal segments of each leg (Lensky et al. 1985). Each gland consists of a unicellular layer which surrounds andsecretes into a sac-like cavity which forms the reservoir of the gland. The unicellular layer of epithelial cells contain an abundance of cellular organelles consistent with a secretory activity (Goodman 2003). The chemical is deposited by the terminalarolium between the tarsal claws as the bee walks about. In addition to the feet, it is deposited by the tip of the abdomen, which often trails over the surface as the bee walks (Caron and Connor 2013).