Dave Cushman writes:

<<  As we only see bees larger than 5.1 cellsize in the "developed world"
where
foundation has been used for a century or so, is it not possible that the
whole population of bees, that the morphometric studies were conducted on,
were larger because all managed bees on foundation exibit an enlargement?

There are some that do not accept that foundation sizes have increased over
the last century. Fine I have no "time machine" to go back and collect the
evidence but... If this enlargement has not occured why then have queen
excluder grid spacings increased from 4.2 mm up to 4.9 mm over that period?
and why has the bee space dimension gradually increased from 6 mm to 9 mm?
(part of the answer to the last question lies in timber seasoning but there
has been an increase in bee space allowance over the last 150 years.)>>

    What we've had is a century or so of selection pressure in the direction
of genetically larger bees which will cope more easily with the enlarged
foundation. The genes for smaller bees may have virtually disappeared in
Europe during this process, which would explain the situation. About the only
thing we can say for certain is that the 'original' cell size must have been
around 5mm, give or take a bit. If it had been much smaller, someone would
have reported 'six to the inch'. Much larger and it would have been 'four to
the inch'. Not very satisfactory, but the best that can be done at present.


Regards,

Robert Brenchley

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