Scientists from Israel and the USA conducted an experiment aimed at acclimating worker ground bumblebees to a new scent of their queen to determine if this aroma could function as a pheromone.
Although the bees successfully absorbed the new scent, the results were unexpected for the researchers. In the absence of the queen and in the presence of brood, this scent triggered an increase in the reproduction of the workers themselves, instead of the expected suppression.
The scientists established a link between this effect and the actual absence of the queen. They concluded that the ability of these insects to react to chemical signals can vary significantly depending on environmental conditions. The results of this study were published in the journal Communications Biology.