Color you can see with your eye is also meaningless.  Color, like the quoted haplotype simply tells you something about a very tiny hunk of the total DNA and nothing at all about the vast bulk of DNA.  It would be perfectly reasonable for an It colored queen to head a colony that had classic Carny behavior or to have a black as your hat queen that headed a colony that had classic It behavior.

Forget genetics for a moment.  Rather, consider money.  Say that I tell you that six different people each have a penny as part of their bank savings account.  Now, one of those people might have $1 million in the bank and another might have $35 total in the bank.  Knowing each has a penny tells you zero about anyone's total balance.  Just like knowing a tiny hunk of DNA in the queen tells you zero about the total behavior of some colony of bees.



Thanks Dick,   I can't tell you how much I appreciate the well worded explanations. I myself struggle at times on how to explain things,  your ability to put it to words is a great service.

Charles

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