IDENTIFICATION OF
ATRIGLYCERIDE
(GLYCERYL-1,2-DIOLEATE-3-PALMITATE)
AS
A BROODPHEROMONE OF
THE HONEY BEE(APIS
MELLIFERAL.)
Identifizierung eines Tri-Glycerids (Glyceryl-1, 2-dioleat-3-palmitat)
als
Brutpheromon
derHonigbiene (Apis mellifera L.)
Identification
d’untriglycéride (glyceryl-1, 2-dioléate-3-palmitate)
comme
phéromone
de couvain de l’abeille(A P is mellifica L.)
N. KOENIGER H. J. VEITH*
Institut for Bienenkunde, Fachbereich Biologie der
J. W. Goethe-Universität. Karl-v.-Frisch-Weg 2
D - 6370 Oberursel I
I
nstitut fiir organische Chemie und Biochemie der Technischen Hochschule D - 6100 Darmstadt
Honey
bees care for their brood in a verycomplete
way. At low ambienttemperatures they
incubate the pupae andregulate
thetemperature
at 35 °C. Thequestion
how beesrecognize
the brood is still unsolved. When two semi-artificialqueencells consisting
out of natural silk cocoons were offered to a group of 500 hive beesthey regularily
make a choice andintergrate only
one of the two cells intotheir cluster.
The
biological
active fraction was extracted from drone pupae withdiethyle- ther, purified by
HPLC andanalyzed by masspectrometry, ’H-NMR
and IR-spectroscopy.
Based on these resultsGlyceryl-1, 2-dioleate-3-palmitate
was identi-fied as the main
component
of this fraction.Synthesized
substance(7 pg)
offeredon a test cocoon released the
clustering
of the bees around it.Experiments
on othersubstances and a more detailed discussion will be