Hi Dee

Your rule of thumb...
 > 2% size difference in the bee per each
 > degree of latitude change

Does not stack up with the morphometry, I suspect that within some races 
it may be true, but it certainly is not true in UK, Parts of Europe and 
some regions of what was the USSR in days gone by.

Yes, there is a variability in cell size within a nest with the smallest 
cells right in the core of the nest, but in UK that equates to 5.1 mm 
for Italianised bees and can vary up to 5.6 mm for some Amm types, with 
a good many Amm types around 5.3-5.4 mm (these figures are all regarding 
the smallest cells in the core of the nest).

I have only seen one nest in more than thirty five years that had cells 
as small as 5.00 mm and none that had cells smaller than that (other 
than odd ones and transition cells).

Freely built comb in UK is most commonly 5.5 mm.


Regards & Best 73s, Dave Cushman, G8MZY
http://website.lineone.net/~dave.cushman or http://www.dave-cushman.net
Short FallBack M/c, Build 6.02/3.1 (stable)

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