 Whereas isopentenyl esters, unsaturated fatty acids, and hydrocarbons are far more abundant in the chemical makeup of a virginal queen's hormones, the old queen's hormones are more likely to be made up of largely macrocyclic lactones.This chemical distinction between virginal and old females allows males to distinguish between the two, thus enabling male choice in sexual partner.They are also capable of discriminating between familiar and unknown queens, and l generally are more attracted to queens of a foreign colony, which likely arose as an outbreeding mating strategy, which increases genetic diversity of the population and decreases the probability that the next generation would be subject to genetic disease.