Abstract: To study the effects of brood pheromone esters (methyl palmitate, ethyl palmitate and ethyl oleate) on feeding and capping behavior of workers and development of the queens of Apis cerana cerana and A. mellifera ligustica, 1-day-old worker larvae were transferred to the artificial queen cells made of bee wax that were mixed with three aliphatic esters at concentrations of 1% and 0.1% (w/w), and then the acceptance of queen cells, weight of each larva, and weight of royal jelly in each queen cell were tested. Dummy larvae made of paraffin mixed with three aliphatic esters at the concentrations of 1% and 0.1 % (w/w), respectively, were introduced into the empty cells, and the worker acceptance of cells was tested. After dripping royal jelly mixed with three aliphatic esters at the concentrations of 1% and 0.1% (w/w), respectively, into the queen cells when the larvae was 1-, 2- and 3-day-old, the emergence weight and the quantity of ovarioles of queen were tested. The results showed that (1) Methyl palmitate (0.1%) significantly improved the weight of larvae in each queen cell in both A. cerana cerana and A. mellifera ligustica. (2) Methyl palmitate (1%, 0.1%) and ethyl oleate (1%, 0.1%) significantly increased the capping rate of the dummy larvae in A. mellifera ligustica. (3) Ethyl oleate (1%, 0.1%) significantly depressed weight and ovarioles of the queen in both A. cerana cerana and A. mellifera ligustica. These results indicate that different brood pheromones of honeybee have different biological effects.

Key words: Apis cerana cerana, Apis mellifera ligustica, brood pheromone, feeding behavior, capping behavior, queen development