The ‘Queen-Substance’ of Honeybees and the Ovary-inhibiting Hormone of Crustaceans

Abstract

IN the course of work on the social organization of honeybee communities¹, it has been found that worker honeybees obtain a substance (‘queen-substance’) from their queens which, if obtained in sufficient quantity, inhibits development of their ovaries and the production of further queens. It will also, under experimental conditions, inhibit ovary development in worker ants (Formica fusca) (unpublished work, C. G. B.). A similar hormone has been shown to inhibit ovary development in decapod crustaceans². These substances appear to be similar in several respects. Thus both are stable to heat and to acids but less so to alkalis, soluble in acetone and alcohol, both are active, at least under certain conditions, when taken orally, and both serve to inhibit development of the ovary and related phenomena.