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Date: | Fri, 28 Feb 2020 10:49:46 -0500 |
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This paper presents an interesting take on the conservation of resources when a colony raises small drones. It seems that little guys make more sperm per gram of weight which would seem to indicate that the colony makes an overinvestment in resources by raising large drones. But there must be an advantage to size if colonies, without exception, raise large drones for normal mating purposes and my guess is that it's superior flight competition. Their larger eyes, more powerful musculature, and larger antennas, may give them an advantage when chasing queens.
>Drones may considerably deviate in size. When haploid larvae are raised in worker cells,
which are smaller than drone cells, the resulting adult males are called “dwarf” drones because
of their unusually small size. Such drones produce fewer total spermatozoa than large
drones. But calculated on a weight basis, per gram body mass small drones produce 20%
more spermatozoa than large drones (Schlüns et al., 2003). If we assume the amount of food
needed to gain one gram final body mass to be similar in both types of drones, workers should
favorably raise small drones to produce more spermatozoa per deployed gram of food (Schlüns et al., 2003).
>Differences in drone and worker physiology in honeybees (Apis mellifera)
Norbert Hrassnigg, Karl Crailsheim
>https://www.apidologie.org/articles/apido/pdf/2005/02/M4074.pdf
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