Hello all,

I have been thinking about the 4.9 mm comb question.  I haven't come up with an answer, but I have come up with another question.  I've studied  morphological variation in honey bees, and have noted the obvious trend that bigger bees have bigger wings.  What I was wondering is if the proportions are the same - are the bees bigger in all directions, and does the change in size mean a change in wing structure to accomodate the extra weight?  Bigger bees like Asian giant honey bees have bigger wings, but the vein structure is elongated - stretched out - and the ratio of width to breadth is reduced.  In my study of Apis cerana (the common Asian cavity-nesting honey bee - their equivalent to Europe's Apis mellifera) I looked at shape variation in their wings and legs.  I could remove the effect of overall size from my analysis, so that I wasn't calling bees different simply because of their size, but I couldn't remove the effect size may have had on proportional differences.  Back to the 4.9 question: when a beekeeper elects to force bees onto a different size comb than that which is 'natural' to them, do the bees simply make different sized, but proportionally the same brood, or does the forcing change proportions, wing structure, etc.?  I was wondering 1) if anyone knows of such a project, and 2) if any of you would be willing to sacrifice a couple dozen bees to 'science' so that I could study this question?  I would be looking for bees that are not forced to a comb size, that are forced to larger and / or smaller combs, and whose ancestry is known (not only purebreds, but wild crosses are welcome, so long as they are known to be wild crosses).  The information I would need for a submission is date of collecting, location of colony (including latitude and longitude and approximate elevation), race of bee, size of comb, and whether it was a naturally built comb or a comb built on a particular size foundation.  Ten bees per hive from a few hives would be sufficient for the study.  If you are interested email me and I
how to collect it.  It would take no more than a half hour of your time and a stamp.

Thanks,

Martin Damus