UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa., May 18 -- Pennsylvania State University issued the following news release:
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Every bumble bee colony has a queen, but a new study led by researchers at Penn State suggests the process of determining which baby bee reigns supreme may be less monarchal than the royal title suggests.
The study, published in the journal Insect Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, explored why some bumble bee larvae become workers and others become queens, despite coming from the same eggs.
The team found that juvenile hormone - a hormone in insects responsible for insect development, molting and reproduction - was key to this process. When researchers administered the hormone to worker bees, they passed it to all the...