Selecting for traits just got a little less opaque. It seems out that workers and "kin selection" may have a greater impact than had been thought. "Our study highlights the significant contribution of worker phenotypes to adaptive evolution in social insects, and provides a wealth of knowledge on the loci that influence fitness in honey bees." http://www.pnas.org/content/111/7/2614.full http://tinyurl.com/m6v6mpc I'm not clear on how one might leverage this new understanding in practical queen rearing, but if one listens to Jeff Pettis et al, one is well-advised to do as little as merely blindly replicate commercially-produced queen stock in known-clear combs just to avoid what appears to be the negative impact of miticide residues on queen (and/or drone, it is still not clear) fecundity/longevity. *********************************************** 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