In article <[log in to unmask]>, Dee
Lusby <[log in to unmask]> writes
>Don't most all of you have some bees with wings longer then
>the bodies of your workers and drones, or at least the same
>length, or to length to within the last tergit on the
>abdomen?

I wondered about this and when this thread started up I decided to
actually observe what was there. Over a couple of days I looked at this
feature in a couple of hundred colonies.

My conclusion is that it is commonplace. There are at least as many
colonies as not where it is the normal, and most colonies have at least
some bees where it is found.

Never particularly noticed it until my attention was drawn to it as it
seems to be more the normal than anything special.

Only real exception are our Kona carniolans, where, when well nourished,
they are a very big bee and very few have these long wings, but if there
is a food deficiency they too meet this criterion.

--
Murray McGregor