"I thought that worker cell size was settled once and for all ... and determined to be ...  4.9 mm +/- 0.000mm"

Afraid you are wrong.  Lusby's claims are all hot air as she is not able to do high school math and as a result screwed up the calculation of cell sizes.  Please see for an explanation of the correct way to treat the data Lusby used at:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263659467_On_the_natural_cell_size_of_European_honey_bees_A_fatal_error_or_distortion_of_historical_data

The natural cell size for the European honey bee is about 5.1 or 5.2mm, not the smaller size claimed by Lusby.  This natural cell size is based on the same historical data in the bee literature that Lusby used, current measurements on today's comb and the extensive experiments done by Root during the late 1800s and early 1900s on what dimensions on foundations did bees prefer.  This work by Root is covered nicely in the "ABC and etc" edition from 1913.  That said, we all know that natural comb has cells of lots of different sizes.  This is inevitable when the bees are drawing comb from several starting points and merge those combs.  So, if you carefully pick the right areas you can get lots of different numbers.

At least one person who has taken a hard look at what bees often do with the un-natural 4.8 mm foundation has found that the bees lean each cell over a bit more than the one besides it to get a normal sized cell and then every ten or twelve cell imprints on the foundation one is  simply skipped over.  That person is on this forum and can comment for himself if he wishes.

Dick

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