Hallo all!

I would like to comment again on the cell size, even though we had
seen a lot of discussion on that topic on Bee-L.

It is evident, that the cell cize of the european honeybee has an
average cell cize of about 5.33 mm. However, I would point out
that these data are collected from bees held in the norhtern part
of europe which would not have been shipped to the united states
as the first choice (see below).

The early bees which have been shipped to the US are most
certainly bees from Spain - Portugal - wich are possibly inbread
with bees from northern Africa (beeing africanized as we could
read recently on this Bee-L list). I do question whether the early
bees in the US are thus naturally bees with a cell size of about
4.9 mm? Could someone from southern Spain comment on that idea?
Are cell measurements from bees of southern Spain available?
At least this would give some explanation to the different opinions
on original cell size of honey bees in the US. If so, the topic of
enlargement would only be the change from a more africanized bee
to not africanized european bees adapating to the needs of the
bee race held currently.

I would like to make a second comment as a biologist on the topic of
Larmakian thinking in bee biology using the terms regressin and
enlangement.

Forcing bees to use small cell size for raising brood will not alter
the genetic information of the bees and there is no possibilty to
alter the genetic code due to enlargement or regression. If so we
would need to change the known rules of genetics. Even Thylokety
will not alter the genetic information; this can only be achieved
by mating and the following segregation of genes.

So there should be a different mechanism involved in the 4.9 mm
story not discussed so far. Therefore I would like to suggest the
following possibility:

If I breed bees in an area where a) bees are available with a cell
size preference of about 4.9 mm  and b) bees with a preferred cell
size of 5.3 mm, I can select bees by breeding which do best on
4.9 mm or 5.3 mm. If I put selection pressure into the 4.9 mm
preference I shurly will select the bee surviving better on this cell
size due to their normal smaller cell size type.

Thus I do suggest that the the selection presseure applied by some
breeders for 4.9 mm will certainly select for the africanized beetype.
This would - however - not say anything against such a bee as long
as this bee can help a beekeeper to survive due to benefits this
bee might have or has as shown by the success using such methods.

Modern genetic thechniques are certainly capable to show such
relationschips if there is a will to know!!! So I do suggest
here to use genetic methods to clear this possibility.

With best regards

Ahlert Schmidt