Dwarf queens

One of the principal external anomalies of the queen bee may be seen in the so-called "dwarf queens" that are occasionally reared by the bees when insufficient pollen and nectar is available, and which seldom ever attain the size of a worker bee. One should not confuse them with egg­ laying working bees, because dwarf queens possess small but otherwise normally developed sex organs. Usually, however, they remain unmated and sterile. The dwarfism should not be attributed to a hereditary factor in such cases but, rather, to insufficient nutrition during the larval stage. It is not presently known whether a hereditary dwarfism exists also in honey bees.

FYG, W. (1964). ANOMALIES AND DISEASES OF THE QUEEN HONEY BEE. Annual Review of Entomology

             ***********************************************
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