Age and QMP exposure affect the nutritional preferences of caged Apis mellifera worker honeybees

Eusocial insect queens often use pheromones to prevent reproduction in the worker caste, enforcing the reproductive constraint that is central to eusociality. In A. mellifera honeybees, the queen emits several pheromones that affect worker reproduction, the most important being QMP. Although the effects of QMP have been studied in some detail, the mechanisms by which it brings about reproductive constraint in workers are still unclear. Remarkably, QMP is also able to repress reproduction in other insects, including the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster, in which QMP has been shown to induce a starvation-like response. Here we use caged newly eclosed workers with an ad libitum choice of protein and sugar food sources to investigate whether QMP alters dietary intake in the honeybee. We show that initially, irrespective of QMP exposure, workers only consume protein, before shifting to carbohydrate after 4 days. We also show that QMP exposure results in an increased preference and intake of carbohydrates in worker bees, raising the possibility that QMP also induces a starvation-like response in honeybees.

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13592-026-01246-8.