Nasonov gland

honey bee, Nasonov gland

Nasonov gland (marked red) of honey bee worker. After Jacobs (1925, fig. 12a, 21b) [1], Snodgras (1956, fig. 57c) [2].
In the upper image the gland is exposed; in the lower image the gland is hidden between tergites.

The Nasonov gland is exposed by: workers forming swarm cluster [3], young workers returning from orientation flight [4], foragers at a food source [5], returning foragers when they have problem with finding the nest entrance [6], disorientated workers outside the nest [7], workers waiting at the nest entrance for queen returning from mating flight [8], worker at the nest entrance of queenless colonies [9], near larvae chosen for emergency queen rearing [10], workers in some unnatural circumstances [11].

Nasanov gland occurs only in workers, not in queens or drones.
The Nasonov gland secretion contains (accordng to [12][13][14][15]):

  1. (Z)-citral
  2. (E)-ditral
  3. nerol
  4. geraniol
  5. nerolic acid
  6. geranic acid
  7. (E,E)-farnesol

Each of the components separately is not as effective as the mixture [16].
Composition of the secretion changes with age of workers [17] and differs between winter and spring [18].

Synthetic Nasonov pheromone can be used to attract swarms to swarm traps [19][20][21][22][23][24][16], attract bees to crops for pollination [25][26][27].

Other references: [28][29][30]

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