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The social organization of honey bee colonies is predominantly controlled by the pheromonal cues produced by the queen, workers and brood. Pheromone composition is dependent on the social environment, context, audience and physiological status of the individual. In the absence of the queen, ontogenic changes and reproductive status modulate pheromone production and composition in workers. In these queenless workers, pheromonal status influences diet with dominant workers consuming less pollen than subordinates as they are fed protein jelly through trophallaxis, which positively correlates with their ovarian activation. However, it is not known to what extent diet affects pheromonal status in queenless workers. To investigate whether diet affects the production of glandular signals, Apis mellifera scutellata workers were fed carbohydrate-only or protein-rich diets for twenty-five days. The mandibular and …