Hi All

Perhaps I could clarify Peter's response to Dee with another quote from the paper. 

> Each genetically diverse colony
> (n = 12) had a queen that was instrumentally
> inseminated with sperm from a unique set of
> fifteen drones and each genetically uniform
> colony (n = 9) had a queen inseminated with a
> similar volume of sperm from a single drone.
> Drones were selected at random from a pool of
> over 1000 individuals collected from 11 dronesource
> colonies.

So it is not a question of the number (or at least the volume) of sperm, just the diversity of that sperm.

The effect is impressive, and comes on top of a report I was reading this morning of German work that shows the effect of hybrid vigour (alternatively inbreeding depression) on colony performance.

all the best

Gavin

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