| 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 |
| SUMMARY 1. The size of the worker bee as represented by the size of the various parts is significantly increased through the use of brood combs containing enlarged cells. 2. The average percent of increase of the linear measurements of the worker bee is directly proportional to the percent of increase of the diameter of the brood cell. 3. The number of bees used in a sample in this experiment is not large enough to give wholly consistent results, but these results are in general significant and indicative. 4. The measurement of the dry weight is not sufficiently controlled by the present experimental technique. 5. The correlations of length of right fore wing with the other measurements of the worker bee are highly significant. 6. Among the measurements taken in this work the length of the right fore wing gives the best statistical estimation of length of proboscis. 7. The correlations of width of right fore wing with the other measurements are significant but not highly so. 8. The correlations of the sum of the widths of the third and the fourth tergites with the other measurements are in general not significant. 9. The greatest variation of length of proboscis, length of right fore wing and width of right fore wing occurs in the bees from combs having 857 cells per square decimeter. 10. The least variation of length of proboscis and length of right fore wing occurs in the bees from combs having 763 cells per square decimeter, while the least variation of width of right fore wing occurs in the bees from combs having 706 cells per square decimeter. 11. The length of glossa and sum of the lengths of the glossa and the mentum are as highly correlated with the other measurements as is length of proboscis. 12. The length of the mentum is not as highly correlated with the other measurements as are the length of the glossa, the length of the proboscis and the sum of the lengths of the mentum and the glossa. 13. The second member of the right labial palpus is not significantly correlated with length of proboscis. 14. The least variation of the length of the second member of the right labial palpus occurs among those bees in which the variation of the length of proboscis is greatest and vice versa. |