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In ca. 150 species of queenless ants, a specialized queen caste is rare or absent, and mated workers take over the role of the queen in some or all of the colonies. Previously, it has been shown that reproduction in queenless ants is regulated by a combination of dominance behavior and chemical fertility signaling. It is unknown, however, whether chemical signals alone can sufficiently regulate reproduction. To investigate this possibility, we studied reproductive regulation in the facultatively queenless ant Gnamptogenys striatula, a species where dominance behavior is rare or absent. Active egg layers and infertile workers showed qualitative and quantitative differences in their cuticular hydrocarbon profile. Five long-chain methyl alkanes, 3,13- and 3,15-dimethyl pentriacontane, 3,13- and 3,15-dimethyl heptentriacontane, and 3,11,15-trimethyl heptentriacontane occurred only on the cuticles of virgin and mated egg layers. Pronounced quantitative differences were found in a further 27 alkenes; alkanes; and mono-, di-, and trimethyl alkanes. Workers that had recently stopped laying eggs had profiles similar to infertile workers, and mating status did not affect this chemical pattern. We conclude that the cuticular hydrocarbon profiles of G. striatula workers provide reliable information about their current fertility. In the interest of colony productivity, this allows reproduction to be regulated without the use of aggression. ispartof: Journal of chemical ecology vol:32 issue:9 pages:2023-2034 ispartof: location:United States status: published

Background The Member States of European Union are encouraged to improve the general conditions for the production and marketing of apicultural products. In Belgium, programmes on the restocking of honey bee hives have run for many years. Overall, the success ratio of this queen breeding programme has been only around 50%. To tackle this low efficacy, we organized sanitary controls of the breeding queens in 2012 and 2014. Results We found a high quantity of viruses, with more than 75% of the egg samples being infected with at least one virus. The most abundant viruses were Deformed Wing Virus and Sacbrood Virus (≥40%), although Lake Sinai Virus and Acute Bee Paralysis Virus were also occasionally detected (between 10-30%). In addition, Aphid Lethal Paralysis Virus strain Brookings, Black Queen Cell Virus, Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus and Varroa destructor Macula-like Virus occurred at very low prevalences (≤5%). Remarkably, we found Apis mellifera carnica bees to be less infected with Deformed Wing Virus than Buckfast bees (p