>> The lower weight of the queens from colonies rearing queens indicates that the colonies' preparations for swarming included physiological changes in their queens. This weight loss by queens prior to swarming has already been documented (Morse et al., 1966) and undoubtedly reflects the need to trim a queen's weight before she can fly with a swarm.
The weight loss could as easily be from dehydration as from any other cause, and intuitively that makes sense, since the queens bulk up again quite quickly afterwards, and one would have to wonder what other bodily fluids or solids could be as easily altered short-term.
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