Nature 184, 1871 (12 December 1959); doi:10.1038/1841871a0

Extraction and Purification of 'Queen Substance' from Queen Bees

C. G. BUTLER, R. K. CALLOW & NORAH C. JOHNSTON

Bee Department, Rothamsted Experimental Station, Harpenden, Herts.
National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London, N.W.7. Oct. 24.

QUEEN honeybees (Apis mellifera) secrete material which, distributed through the colony, affects the bees in two ways, inhibiting the development of ovaries in workers and influencing their behaviour by inhibiting queen rearing (that is, queen-cell construction)¹. Carlisle and Butler² observed similarities between the 'queen substance' of honeybees in the form of an alcoholic extract and the ovary-inhibiting hormone of prawns (Leander serratus), and it is a justifiable extrapolation to suppose that this material has important physiological effects on animals of other phyla.

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