At 18:51 -0700 6/1/99, Garth wrote:
>Hi All
>
>Just to comment on the suggestion that laying workers cannot fly - I
>beleive this is highly unlikely - a worker bee can fly carrying a
>dead drone - well over twice her weight. She can fly carrying a
>polystyrene ping pong bal!! A worker is a machine - hse can fly very
>well - in fact a queens wings are so similar to a workers, that if
>this laying worker cannot fly concept were correct, a laying worker
>would have to be bigger than a queen.


Maybe it's an issue of the laying workers center of gravity. Any
flying machine has an acceptable CG range and outside of that range,
stable flight is not possible. A tail heavy bee would stall when it
tries to fly.

Paul