> Today, the net result is a wide variance in worker cell sizes produced
> by "natural" or "wild" scutellata. These range from about 4.3mm to
> 4.7mm per cell (according to the methodology on the website you
> referred to). It would be foolhardy to give a mean value, due to the
> variance in hybridisation...

Now that is interesting!  It's nice to have a 'man on the ground' in SA.

What this says to me -- and I'd like to hear comments from others --  is that
the foundation sold in South Africa (4.9) is oversize by quite a lot compared to
what the bees there normally would build, just as the current standard
foundation in Europe and North America is oversize. (By how much , if much, has
been the subject of much dispute here).

If the Cape bee is larger, it almost appears that the African foundation is
built to favour Cape bees over scutellata, and I wonder if this is part of the
problem with Cape bees getting control of managed hives.  I also wonder what
size pure Cape bees build when in the wild.

Anyhow, this report tends to dispute the widely held idea that the natural cell
size for scutellata is 4.9.

Hmmm.

allen
http://www.internode.net/HoneyBee/