Pheromones
Pheromones
Pheromones are chemical signals that are used among insects or animals to communicate and to convey messages among species of the same colony. The messages that pheromones convey have to do with behavior and physiological functions. In other words, pheromones are hormones that are excreted and act outside of the body. The word “Pheromones” comes from Greek which means “carrier of excitation”. The purpose why animals and insects excrete these hormones is: to convey the message that they are in danger, to give sign that they are ready to mate, to attract, to find food, to defense, to map the territory as well as to follow trails.
Insects have several types of pheromones in their body which means that insects have certain exocrine glands in body whereby the pheromones are released. They release different pheromones depending on their purpose as it is represented on the picture below.
Different types of Pheromones, insects release from their body.
Trial Pheromones: this type of pheromone is more used from insects. For example ants communicate with trail pheromones to find food. Also, they organize they work through pheromone scent. Moreover, after an ant finds food sources, the aunt releases pheromones which convey a message to the other workers ants. So they start collecting food and they always release pheromones from their abdominal glands for the other ant’s workers to follow the trial. Whereas, when there is no food the ants do not release pheromones anymore, so, this conveys a message to the other ants that there is no food to collect and they start to explore for new food sources.
In addition, this works for bees too, the only way that bees use to communicate is with pheromone. Bees through pheromones are able to recognize whether the bee is a queen, a worker even if it is from the same hive. Therefore, the queen bee releases a pheromone that tells other bees that I’m the queen and I have governance of colony productivity. The
Pheromones are chemical signals that are used among insects or animals to communicate and to convey messages among species of the same colony. The messages that pheromones convey have to do with behavior and physiological functions. In other words, pheromones are hormones that are excreted and act outside of the body. The word “Pheromones” comes from Greek which means “carrier of excitation”. The purpose why animals and insects excrete these hormones is: to convey the message that they are in danger, to give sign that they are ready to mate, to attract, to find food, to defense, to map the territory as well as to follow trails.
Insects have several types of pheromones in their body which means that insects have certain exocrine glands in body whereby the pheromones are released. They release different pheromones depending on their purpose as it is represented on the picture below.
Different types of Pheromones, insects release from their body.
Trial Pheromones: this type of pheromone is more used from insects. For example ants communicate with trail pheromones to find food. Also, they organize they work through pheromone scent. Moreover, after an ant finds food sources, the aunt releases pheromones which convey a message to the other workers ants. So they start collecting food and they always release pheromones from their abdominal glands for the other ant’s workers to follow the trial. Whereas, when there is no food the ants do not release pheromones anymore, so, this conveys a message to the other ants that there is no food to collect and they start to explore for new food sources.
In addition, this works for bees too, the only way that bees use to communicate is with pheromone. Bees through pheromones are able to recognize whether the bee is a queen, a worker even if it is from the same hive. Therefore, the queen bee releases a pheromone that tells other bees that I’m the queen and I have governance of colony productivity. The
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