What are these large black bees

[The Cumbrian]

don't shoot the messenger just becauase he tells you information you dislike

Nothing I said implied I disliked the information or at least wasn't intended to, and I certainly didn't shoot the messenger.

( information of the source was in my first post in reply to RABs request for a responce

I was merely trying to find out when the English language had changed as none of the references I used before or after asking the question gave any idea that it had a meaning such as was being given.

It would appear it is yet another case of a group twisting the language to mean what they would like it to mean.

Apologies if you felt I was getting at you personally.

 

[For want of a better word]

Apologies if you felt I was getting at you personally.


I sometimes feel I wish I had said that.... !

 

[MuswellMetro]

sorry from me toooooo, been a hard day,

high up swarm at 10:00 and when i got it done i felt duty bounds to go to a call out to the farm near my out apiary in case they were my bees......yes my yellow italians IN A CAVITY WALL COOKER VENT, really a nice calm bee...golden yellow...all the other bees in the area are black mongrels so 99/% sure they are mine...cut out penciled in for tuesday....he is my apiary landowner

 

[susbees]

How long has the word caste been specific to a sex?

All use of caste I have ever come across applied equally to male and female (I am not talking bee specific).

See post 12. It does apply equally when there is differentiation as in some termites where there are sterile worker males and fertile males as well as fertile (and presumably generally) non-fertile females. But not in honey bees.

 

[The Cumbrian]

The use of caste like post 12 which I had read is when talking about castes within a caste. I have still not found any dictionary/reference which requires/suggests gender has anything to do with the definition of caste.

Yes perfectly acceptable to say there are two castes of male termite but not to say there are two castes of honey bee. Two castes of female honey bee - yes but not of honey bees in general.

However this is getting too pedantic for general readership so I shall cease to enquire.

 

[cravenr]

Those big black bees.

Here is a question that's not answered in my bee books: If the drone has only half the chromosones ie no dad, which half does it have. A. The half from his queen grandmother. B. The other half from his grandfather. C. Either or D. a random mixture from his mother (the queen). I ask so I can look for another variation of "home boy" drones? eg something half as big, dark (not black) with stripes.

 

[Nose Ma]

re: drone paternity @cravenr
Well, a drone is from an unfertilised egg, so by definition it is very much the mother's sole input, as you say, it has no dad, but does have a granddad.

His* mother will be from the genes of her mum and dad in about equal measure. All other things being equal, this would be reflected in her unfertilised eggs. Eggs don't really split along the lines of "dad's eggs" and "mum's eggs" it all gets a bit mixed up – look at meiosis for a long explanation. So, a drone's DNA is about half is his grandfather and about half his grandmother, the same proportions, roughly, as his mum. Nobody else has been able to sneak a gene in there. NOTE – this is NOT in any way cloning, a drone is not a clone of his mum.

With you there is the mixing of your mum (half her dad and half her mum) and your dad (half his mum and half his dad), each combination will come with copying errors, known as mutations. So you are not quite half your mum and half your dad, but very close. Take your dad out of that, and you are left with your maternal grandparents plus whatever mutations sneaked in. That's how it works for drones.

Even then there's a lot that’s the same, so vast numbers of genes will be identical in your mum and dad, and indeed everyone on the face of the planet. I can't recall which one it is (I think it codes a DNA structural protein) but there is a gene that has practically the same base sequence in every human, mammal, chordate, animal, and indeed eukaryote. So when you eat your salad later the exact same DNA sequence (give or take a few base paris) will be in your lettuce as is in you.

I don't know how phenotypes work in bees regarding coloration, but I would guess it's not necessarily the case that "black striped grandmother = black striped drone". Many phenotypes are quite subtle and inter-dependent on genes arriving together, or even the environment. Hydrangea flower colours are a good example of the latter – being soil pH dependent.

Does that help?

*male pronoun used for convenience.

 

[RoofTops]

Some of you folk need to get out more.

 

[susbees]

The use of caste like post 12 which I had read is when talking about castes within a caste. I have still not found any dictionary/reference which requires/suggests gender has anything to do with the definition of caste.

Yes perfectly acceptable to say there are two castes of male termite but not to say there are two castes of honey bee. Two castes of female honey bee - yes but not of honey bees in general.

However this is getting too pedantic for general readership so I shall cease to enquire.

Two castes of the female persuasion within the species Apis mellifera. Pedantic...yes .

 

[Mike a]

Some of you folk need to get out more.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Some of you folk need to get out more.

I blame Matron for not providing adequate O.T.

Dusty.

 

[beehive1234]

WOW! So many gifts.
Thirsty for more