Selecting for traits just got a little less opaque.  It seems out that
workers and "kin selection" may have a greater impact than had been thought.

"Our study highlights the significant contribution of worker phenotypes to
adaptive evolution in social insects, and provides a wealth of knowledge on
the loci that influence fitness in honey bees."

http://www.pnas.org/content/111/7/2614.full
http://tinyurl.com/m6v6mpc

I'm not clear on how one might leverage this new understanding in practical
queen rearing, but if one listens to Jeff Pettis et al, one is well-advised
to do as little as merely blindly replicate commercially-produced queen
stock in known-clear combs just to avoid what appears to be the negative
impact of miticide residues on queen (and/or drone, it is still not clear)
fecundity/longevity.

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