Is *all we are seeing* cannibalism of parasitized brood exactly the same
way as diploid brood?

At first I thought this was quite an interesting possibility.  But upon
pondering for awhile I don't think this is the case.  It's a chicken and
eqq thing.  At first, Dr. Harbo discovered bees that exhibited what he
dubbed at the time "SMR".  It was this trait that he successfully
isolated by continually selecting for it.  He did not consider any other
trait other than what he dubbed "SMR".  It was the continual selection
for the SMR trait alone that produced bees that by his own admission
were at that point terrible inbred, exhibiting spotty brood patterns.
But it was the SMR trait that Dr. Harbo chose first, it was the constant
selection and inbreeding that got us to the spotty brood.  I am not
dismissing the cannibalism of diploid brood possibility as far as where
the bees may be today, but to be a player in the original game the bees
had to have whatever was the SMR trait to get in the door.

It's interesting to me to see the assertion that it takes an F2 hybrid
to get from the spotty brood to an acceptable pattern.  Again, not
accepting or rejecting the assertion, I'm wondering if perhaps Dr. Harbo
simply took the work too far and might have been better off stopping at
the stage where it is asserted we must now backpedal.  I'm not sure of
the figures (percentages) John originally presented when he first
started down this path, but my recollection is that it was just a few
percentage points separating the SMR bees from the rejects.

Interesting indeed!

Aaron Morris - thinking you are what you eat!

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