"First I am confused about this Randy in that you start of talking about 5 star larvae and then speak of 'uncap new-sealed cells'.. which first sounds a bit contradictory and more about the pupae stage than the larvae stage... what am I missing here?

secondly to my understanding (and do correct me if I am wrong) in the larvae stage the full gut of the larvae is not developed but is developing from the digestive tracts two ends and anything like a pollen grain could not be digested anyway... to my understanding it is only in the pupae stage where the full length of the digestive tract is approaching full development."

To be accurate, the larvae possess a completly close digestive track until it spins his cocoon. During cocoon spinning the digestive tracks open itself to release the wastes accumulated during the entire life of the larvae, these wastes are used to consolidate the cocoon with the silk. As a consequence, you can see pollen grains inside the larvae but not anymore after the cell is capped, pollen exines and wastes are then on the side of the cell wall.
Georges Prigent, France

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html