> The most obvious effects of inbreeding are poorer reproductive efficiency including higher mortality rates, lower growth rates and a higher frequency of hereditary abnormalities. This has been shown by numerous studies with cattle, horses, sheep, swine and laboratory animals.  http://extension.missouri.edu/p/G2911

> I can not see anything in the reference to justify you statement.  Just what tragic weaknesses do you mean?

I referred to hereditary abnormalities. These appear in inbred lines. Chondrodysplasia, Spinal Dysmyelination, Ichthyosis, there are many. Whether this applies to honey bees is less certain, of course, but the very fact that the honey bee mating system has evolved to 1) virtually prevent single lineages in colonies; 2) virtually ensure outcrossing; 3) and includes a very high rate of meiotic recombination -- implies that the Genus has moved far and away from inbreeding, whatever its consequences. Loss of vigor alone would account for these phenomena, although we have already referred to the effect of diploid drones, which is a direct consequence of relatedness. 

The chief point that I have attempted to make is that evolution is moving away from close relatedness. Traits appear in a population due to the weeding out of poor lineages by natural selection. Over time these traits may become "fixed" but not due to homozygosity, but rather as a result of convergent evolution, where a individuals in a population independently produce the same adaptations due to natural selection favoring traits which ensure survival. Additional factors may be at work as well, such as endosymbionts. Successful individuals may in fact have nothing in common other than the presence of symbionts that confer a fitness advantage, and by this means alone prevail. 

PLB

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