Regarding our discussion about genetic diversity,
here is a new little piece of information.
The abstract given below is from:

http://www.pubs.royalsoc.ac.uk/publish/pro_bs/index.htm
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Relatedness among honeybees (Apis mellifera) of a drone congregation
 E.Baudry, M.Solignac, L.Garnery, M.Gries, J.-M.Cornuet, N.Koeniger
 Proc R Soc Lond B 1998 vol 265 pp2009

The honeybee (Apis mellifera) queen mates during nuptial flights,
in the so-called drone congregation area where many males from
surrounding colonies gather. Using 20 highly polymorphic microsatellite
loci, we studied a sample of 142 drones captured in a
congregation close to Oberursel (Germany). A parentage test based on
lod score showed that this sample contained one group of four brothers,
six groups of three brothers, 20 groups of two brothers and 80
singletons. These values are very close to a Poisson distribution.
Therefore, colonies were apparently equally represented in the
drone congregation, and calculations showed that the congregation
comprised males that originated from about 240 different colonies.
This figure is surprisingly high. Considering the density of colonies
around the congregation area and the average flight range of males,
it suggests that most colonies within the recruitment perimeter
delegated drones to the congregation with an equal probability,
resulting in an almost perfect panmixis. Consequently, the relatedness
between a queen and her mates, and hence the inbreeding coefficient
of the progeny, should be minimized. The relatedness among the drones
mated to the same queen is also very low, maximizing the genetic
diversity among the different patrilines of a colony.
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I do not know why the authors did not expect a number that high.
However, I find it interesting to see when the invisible becomes
visible.

Michael Haberl
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