Nasonov's gland

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Nasonov's gland produces a pheromone used in recruitment in worker honeybees. The pheromone can serve the purposes of attracting workers to a settled swarm and draw bees who have lost their way back to the hive. It is used to recruit workers to food that lacks a characteristic scent and lead bees to water sources. The gland is located on the dorsal side of the abdomen. Its opening is located at the base of the last tergite at the tip of the abdomen.

The gland was first described in 1882 by the Russian zoologist Nikolai Viktorovich Nasonov (February 14, 1855 – February 11, 1939).Насонов, Н. В. [Nasonov, N.V.] (1885) [https://books.google.com/books?id=2TxPAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA2 "О строеніи кожныхъ железъ пчелъ"] [On the structure of the skin glands of bees] Известия Императорского Общества Любителей Естествознания, Антропологии и Этнографии: Зоологический Сад и Акклиматизация, Том второй. Годичное Заседание Отделения Беспозвоночных Животных Императорскаго Русскаго Общества Акклиматизации Животных и Растений 27 Июля 1882. [News of the Imperial Society of Lovers of Natural Science, Anthropology and Ethnography: Zoological Garden and Acclimatization, volume two. Annual Meeting of the Department of Invertebrate Animals of the Imperial Russian Society for Acclimatization of Animals and Plants July 27, 1882.] 46:2-3. (in Russian){{cite web |last1=naturebee |title=The biography of Nikolai Viktorovich Nasonov |date=February 13, 2016 |url=https://www.beesource.com/threads/the-biography-of-nikolai-viktorovich-nasonov.321249/ |website=Beesource |access-date=30 May 2021}}Nasonov's findings were reported to the West in 1883 by A. Zoubareff (also spelled: Zoubarev):

• {{cite journal |last1=Zoubareff |first1=A. |title=A propos d'un organ de l'abeille non encore d'ecrit |journal=Bulletin d'Apiculture pour la Suisse Romande |date=November 1883 |volume=5 |issue=11 |pages=215–216 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XU8gAQAAMAAJ&pg=RA1-PA215 |trans-title=Regarding an organ of bees that has not yet been described |language=French}}
• Republished in English: {{cite journal |last1=Zoubareff |first1=A. |last2=Benton |first2=Frank, trans. |title=Concerning an organ of the bee not yet described |journal=The British Bee Journal |date=15 December 1883 |volume=11 |pages=296–297 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/83064#page/422/mode/1up}}{{cite book |last1=Snodgrass |first1=Robert E. |title=Anatomy and Physiology of the Honeybee |date=1925 |publisher=McGraw-Hill |location=New York City, New York, USA |pages=114-117 (and references on pp. 307-313) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=co8cAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA114}} Nasonov thought that the gland performed perspiration;(Snodgrass, 1925), p. 114. it was Frederick William Lambert Sladen (May 30, 1876 - 1921) of England who in 1901 first proposed that the gland produced a pheromone.See:
• (Snodgrass, 1925), p. 116.
• {{cite journal |last1=Sladen |first1=F. W. L. |title=A scent organ in the bee |journal=The British Bee Journal |date=11 April 1901 |volume=29 |pages=142-143, 151-153 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/83071#page/152/mode/1up}}
• Republished in condensed form in: {{cite journal |last1=Sladen |first1=F.W.L. |title=A scent-producing organ in the abdomen of the bee |journal=Gleanings in Bee Culture |date=1 August 1901 |volume=19 |pages=339–340 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/57012#page/584/mode/1up}}
• Reprinted in: {{cite journal |last1=Sladen |first1=F.W.L. |title=A scent-producing organ in the abdomen of the worker of Apis mellifera |journal=The Entomologist's Monthly Magazine |date=September 1902 |volume=38 |pages=208–211 |url=https://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/item/36477#page/220/mode/1up}}