The Biology of the Honey Bee

Pheromones and Chemical Communication in Insects

Chemical communication is an essential item for insects’ survivals that qualify them to adapt their behavior depending on the surrounding environment. Semiochemicals defined as informative molecules (M) mainly play an important role that conveys specific chemical messages between insect and insect and plant and insect. Olfaction mechanism in insects is a key point of chemical communication between the same and different insect species. Discrimination of various odors through the olfaction system depends only on the evolutionary pressures of the molecules which stimulate the development of specific binding proteins (BPs) and specific receptor sites present on individual chemosensory neurons. Pheromones are defined as species-specific chemical signals which enable communication between life-forms of the same species. Recently, semiochemicals become as alternative or complementary components to insecticide approaches in integrated pest management (IPM) strategies. Pheromones are secreted by insects causing a specific reaction, for example, either a definite behavior or a developmental process. Pheromones have been classified into eight various types: aggregation pheromones, alarm pheromones, oviposition-deterrent pheromones, home recognition pheromones, sex pheromones, trail pheromones, recruitment pheromones, and royal pheromones. Pheromones are promising and can be used singly or in integration with other control strategies for monitoring and controlling insect pests in agricultural systems.