Apis mellifera (2n=32), commonly known as the European honey bee or the
Western honey bee, is a eusocial insect. Each honey bee colony is a composite unit of
thousands of bees, with three different castes: a polyandrous reproductively active
queen; thousands of workers; and a few hundred drones. The queen and the workers
represent the female caste that develops from fertilized eggs, whereas the drones are
male bees formed from unfertilized or fertilized eggs. In the case of the female honey
bees, the phenomenon of polyphenism can be easily highlighted, which is the
developmental plasticity of the same genomic contents to express differently as per
environmental cues. During the queen larval developmental phase, the exclusive diet is
royal jelly, which induces hyper-secretion of juvenile and ecdysone hormones that
ultimately cause sequential activation of certain genetic elements, specifically after 3rd
instar onward. For the worker honey bee larvae, initially, the diet includes royal jelly
exclusively, followed by honey, pollen grains, and worker jelly, which collectively
direct development toward the worker caste. Furthermore, for harmonious social
interaction, the queen secretes certain volatile chemical bouquets including 9-
ODA(2E)-9-oxodecenoic acid), 9-HDA (9-hydroxy-(E)-2-decenoic acid), 10-HDA
(10-hrdroxy-2-decenoic acid), HVA (4-hydroxy-3-methoxyphenylethanol), HOB
(Methyl-p-hydroxybenzoate), 10-HDAA (10-hydroxydecanoic acid), OLA
(oligolactide), methyl oleate, decyl decanoate, linolenic acid, coniferyl alcohol, cetyl
alcohol, etc. The concerned pheromones facilitate the regulation of workers' behavior;
workers' ovarian suppression; retinue control; overall worker’s development
modulation; colonial product production; swarming tendency; pseudo-queen formation
suppression; mating, etc. The queen honey bee is polyandrous, as she mates with many
drones during the nuptial flight in 'Drone Congregation Areas (DCA)’, within about 2
weeks of her post-emergence. This chapter provides a comprehensive review of the
polyandrous queen honey bee; her synchronous developmental phases; her pheromone
dominance; her regulation and coordination of colonies; her mating preference and
habits; and her role in a composite hive. Subsequent chapters provide an elaborative
view of different aspects of the queen honey bees' life cycle.
Keywords: Developmental Plasticity, Polyphenism and DCA, Queen Honey Bee.
