| A Biometrical Study
of the Influence of Size of Brood Cell Upon the Size and Variability
of the Honeybee (Apis mellifera L.) by Roy A. Grout, 1931 |
| REVIEW OF LITERATURE 4. Studies on the variability of the honeybee with special reference to size of brood cell. The first paper giving data upon the variability in bees appears to be that of Koshevnikov (36), who, in 1900, studied the number of hooks on the hind wing. In 1905, the same author presented data which could be arranged in the form of a correlation table. Landacre (38), in 1901, counted the number of hooks on the hind wing but, according to Phillips (52), his data was not presented in statistical form. In 1903, Casteel and Phillips (12) made a biometrical study of the wing venation of the drone and worker bees and arrived at the conclusion that the uncreased variability of the drone was due in part to the increased variability of the cells in which they were reared. Bachmetjew (6), in 1903, began a study of the variability of the hooks on the hind wings of honeybees. His results and conclusions have been strongly criticised in the literature, and Pearl (49), in 1910, wondered whether Bachmetjew was really serious or whether he was attempting to perpetrate a great biometrical joke. Phillips (53) recalculated the data presented by Bachmetjew in 1909 and discovered that the results were entirely normal and agreed with the results of other investigators. Kellogg and Bell (35), in 1904, showed that there was greater variability in single wing veins than in the length or breadth of the entire wing and that there was a greater variability in the number of hooks on the hind wing than in the wing venation. This variability was as great in workers as it was in drones. Kellogg (34) later made a further investigation and concluded that, except for the number of hooks on the hind wing, drones were more variable than workers. He also found that the variability of drones reared in worker cells was greater than drones reared in drone cells, and stated that this greater variation was not due to special extrinsic factors such as size of cells. In Russia many studies have been made upon the variability of the honeybee and the factors which influence variation. These investigations have been carried out on a large scale and have been calculated by statistical methods; they constitute a large part of our knowledge concerning the variability of the honeybee. Among these contributions are the works of Michailov, Alpatov, Tuenin, Choclov and others as cited by Alpator (3) in 1929. Mention should also be made of biometrical studies on social insects, such as the work of Wright, Lee and Pearson (72), in 1907, on Vespa vulgaris from a single nest and by Thomson, Bell and Pearson (66), in 1909, on a general wasp population, In the first named paper, the authors re-examined the data of Casteel and Phillips and agreed that those data show a greater variability in drones than in worker bees, a condition which is reversed in the case of Vespa vulgaris. Other biometrical studies of note concerning social insects include the studies of Warren (71) on termites and the seasonal variation occurring in their forms, Alpatov and Palenitschko (4) who worked on different species of ants, and Arnoldi (5) who presented data concerning the variability of the ant Cardiocondyla stambulowi Forel. |