Robin said:

> According to Snodgrass, Weaver in 1955 fed larvae
> unlimited brood food but failed to produce queens.

Is the most recent work in that area as old as 1955?
I'd guess that these days, one could simply collect
brood food from both worker and queen cells, and
compare the two using all the high-tech chemical
analysis developed since then.

> Weaver suggested the bees add something special...

But did Weaver ever watch the bees that feed both worker
cells and a queen cell?  Any one bee appears to be feeding
a large number of cells, and the same bees will feed several
worker cells AND the queen cell.  This tends to make me think
that they are "feeding all from the same pot", unless someone
wants to propose that some sort of special enzyme is added
by the nurse bee when regurgitating to a queen cell.

> Snodgrass emphasised that "The problem of caste determination
> is not one of rich feeding but of bilateral inhibition" as
> workers also inhibit some queen characteristics (which can
> still develop later to some extent in queenless colonies).

But if this were strictly true, how could a queenright colony
raise queens for swarming?


        jim (Money doesn't grow on trees, but banks do have branches)

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