In reply to Ed Southwick's query regarding drifting between bee colonies,
I think that in your initial request, you mentioned interest in other
social insects as well as honeybees.   Some of our work on allodapine bees
may be distantly relevant to your interest.   We find that when females are
forced to eclose in solitary nests, most females will eventually move in
with non-relatives (1991 Jour. Aust. ent. Soc. 30;251-255).   We also have
some anecdotal evidence for temporary colony fusion (involving colony sizes
> 4 but < 8, - these are primitively social bees!).   A manuscript is in prep
 (mainly looking at behavioural specialization, but also describing the fusion
 incident); if you're interested I can send you a copy of the ms.   Generally,
 these bees have excellent kin recognition capability (Psyche 1991, 98;241-250),
 but group living is possibly mandatory, so that colony fusion, singletons
 joining together, etc may be quite common even among non-relatives.
 
Michael Schwarz  ([log in to unmask])
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Dr Michael Schwarz
Zoology Dept
La Trobe University
Ph +61 3 479-2201
Fax +61 3 479-1188
Internet [log in to unmask]
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