- All female larvae are fed the same diet for the first 3 days
- Queens are continually fed Royal Jelly\
- Special Protein – Royalactin
- Certain plant compounds are absent
- Workers are fed brood food
- A mix of glandular secretions, pollen, honey
- By the fifth instar, there are sig. diff. in the developing ovaries between the castes
- Widespread apoptosis of worker’s ovaries, which appears to be mediated in part by JH
QUEEN
WORKER
Mate and reproduce
Cannot mate
Non-barbed stinger
Barbed stinger
Ovarioles (~150 each ovary)
Ovarioles (~2-5 each ovary)
Queen mandibular Pheremones
Alarm Pheromone
Spermatheca
Pollen baskets; Corbicular hairs