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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Murray McGregor <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Sun, 3 Mar 2002 10:44:38 +0000
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In article <[log in to unmask]>, Dee Lusby
<[log in to unmask]> writes
>But in actuality the density of the inside of the bee's
>muscle structure, etc does change.

Too many assumptions being used by most in this. There seems to be
little proof that bees of a single given type fly faster or slower just
according to their size.

All sorts of variables are at play and not many seem to have hit on the
power/weight ratio. I don't have the answers nor would I pretend to, and
it may seem supercilious and unnecessary to say this, but if smaller is
truly better and faster, then why, after 50 million years or so of
selection, are bees not now the size of gnats and fly at mach 2?

The only time I have seen a seriously backed up correlation between
smaller bees and faster flight was in a discussion a long time ago which
involved Garth Cambray (whatever happened to him?) and others. In that,
and subsequent discussions with yet other people involved in monticola
breeding, it was stated that the mode of energy conversion in African
bees, particularly scutellata, is such that they can fly faster and
earlier, and hence outcompete European bees in areas climatically suited
to them. (Dont ask me to explain it, as it had me well baffled to begin
with at the time.) Unfortunately this did not take place solely on Bee-L
so archive searches would prove incomplete.

Perhaps thoracic density is also involved here and may be an indicator
of a genetic type (or supersisters within a colony) rather than strictly
being a size related criterion.

Murray
--
Murray McGregor

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