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queen substance

American

noun

a pheromone secreted from the mandibular glands of a queen honeybee and smelled, eaten, and absorbed by the worker bees, having the effect of preventing them from producing or rearing rival queens.

queen substance British

noun

a pheromone secreted by queen honeybees and consumed by the workers, in whom it causes suppression of egg-laying

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of queen substance

First recorded in 1950–55

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023