> Pete, don't mean to be picking on you, but would you kindly review the process of oogenesis? 

Seems like I am a fount of misinformation this week. Thanks for keeping me on my toes, as it were. Yes, recombination takes place in the formation of the honey bees' eggs. The difference with drones is that they only get one copy of this *recombined* genetic information. (What was I thinking?) As we men know (or should know) there are many species of organisms that reproduce quite successfully with no males at all.


> Recombination occurs in almost all sexually living organisms. It involves both the segregation of entire chromosomes and the genetic exchange between homologous chromosomes (crossing-over), when gametes are formed during the process of meiosis. As a consequence of meiotic recombination, the combinations of alleles in offspring differ from those found in the parents. 
-- Variation in genomic recombination rates among animal taxa and the case of social insects. L Wilfert, J Gadau and P Schmid-Hempel

Pete

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