Hi Rob and All:
You wrote and I snipped three snippets:
 
>The queen will mate with some 17-34 drones per mating
>flight (gary 1963; Adams et al. 1977) and may take up to 5 mating
>flights (Roberts 1944; Gary 1971).>
 
>Genetic studies of the queens progeny using minisatellite dna
>fingerprinting, as John Burgess has pointed out , and  more
>recently using microsatellite analysis (a more sensitive form of
>genetic dna  fingerprinting), has confirmed that the fertilised eggs
>(workers) are derived from at least 10-17different drones (e.g. Adams
>et al. 1997; Estoup et al. 1994)
 
>Therefore why the excess, that is 17-37 drone copulations per mating
>flight and up to 5 mating flights?
 
I very much enjoy speculation about evolutionary adaptations and selection
pressures.  But perhaps in this case the first figures are merely incorrect.
This is extreme presumption on my part, because I have not read the papers,
but my understanding is that in the natural state it is very difficult to
see a mating let alone count the number of partners.  What methods were used?
 
The second references are much more current and the dna fingerprinting is
less open to error.  These are the figures that have been mentioned before
on this list as to the number of copulations (in the 10 to 30 range).
 
I am not an academic and have no access to papers.  I do not like to ask you
to "support" their work, and I am not.  But just a brief note as to your
understanding of how they counted the drones would be much appreciated.
 
Regards, Stan