Our model waxes contained representative compounds from the three primary hydrocarbon groups found in
beeswax: pentacosane, representing the n hydrocarbon fraction, palmityl palmitate,representing the wax ester fraction,
and one of several fatty acids. All substances are naturally occurring components of A. mellifera wax (Aichholz and Lorbeer,1999, 2000)
In these mixtures the hydrocarbon to wax ester ratio was held constant to equal the ratio of these compound classes
in beeswax (18% and 68%, respectively). First, we varied the relative percentage of the free fatty acid component using only
palmitic acid. For the final experiments, we kept the free fatty acid concentration equal to the total free fatty acid component in A. mellifera wax (14%) but varied the identity of the free fatty acid used for that component. We tested two saturated acids (palmitic and lignoceric) and three unsaturated acids (palmi toleic, linoleic and oleic) all of which are used by A. mellifera for nestmate recognition (Breed et al.,1998). All chemicals were purchased from SigmaAldrich and were of the highest purity available (> 98%).