... importance as it may provide a key to solve the evolutionary paradox of sex. Given that the difference in queen pheromone perceptibility generates the developmental bias between sexual and asexual nymphs, the next question is why parthenogens are biased to develop into neotenics whereas sexual nymphs...

... to ignore it and the ensuing arms race between queens and workers would decrease overall colony performance and be selected against( Keller and Nonacs, 1993 ). Furthermore, the observation that honeybee workers `deliberately' distribute queen pheromones through the hive suggested an alternative explanation...