Question

What are Pheromones?

Answer 1

In order to answer this question, we will go through the whole explanation of pheromones, we will also discuss the history or the origin (how the word pheromone was coined). And atlast we will discuss where we can find pheromones in the world.

Complete answer:
A pheromone is a chemical component generated or expelled by members of the same species that causes them to react socially. Pheromones are substances that function like hormones outside of the body of the person who secretes them, influencing the behaviour of others who receive them. Alarm pheromones, food trail pheromones, sex pheromones, and a variety of other pheromones influence behaviour and physiology. From simple unicellular prokaryotes to large multicellular eukaryotes, pheromones are used. It has been widely documented that they are used by insects. Pheromones are also used by some animals, plants, and ciliates to communicate.
In 1959, Peter Karlson and Martin Lüscher coined the portmanteau word "pheromone." Ecto-hormones are a term used to describe pheromones. Various scientists, including Jean-Henri Fabre, Joseph A. Lintner, Adolf Butenandt, and ethologist Karl von Frisch, had previously investigated them and given them various names, such as "alarm chemicals." These chemical messengers travel outside the body and influence neural circuits, including the autonomous nervous system, by causing physiological changes, inflammatory signalling, immune system alterations, and/or behavioural changes in the recipient. Soon after German researcher Adolf Butenandt identified the first such chemical, bombykol, a chemically well-defined pheromone emitted by female silkworms to attract mates, they coined the word to represent chemical cues from conspecifics that evoke inherent behaviours.

Note:
Any endogenous substance secreted in minute amounts by one creature to elicit a specific reaction from another organism of the same species is known as a pheromone. Pheromones are found in insects and vertebrates, as well as crustaceans, however they are not found in birds.