When a honeybee dies it releases a death pheromone, a
characteristic odor that signals the survivors to remove it from
the hive. This might seem a supreme final act of social
responsibility. The corpse is promptly pushed and tugged out of
the hive. The death pheromone is oleic acid [a fairly complex
molecule, CH3(CH2)7CH=CH(CH2)7COOH, where = stands for a double
chemical bond]. What happens if a live bee is dabbed with a drop
of oleic acid? Then, no matter how strapping and vigorous it
might be, it is carried “kicking and screaming” out of the hive.
Even the Queen bee, if she’s painted with invisible amounts of
oleic acid, will be subjected to this indignity. Do the bees
understand the danger of corpses decomposing in the hive? Are
they aware of the connection between death and oleic acid? Do
they have any idea what death is? Do they think to check the
oleic acid signal against other information, such as healty
spontaneous movement? The answer to all these questions is,
almost certainly, No. In the life of th