O'Regan, Emlyn <Emlyn.ORegan@actew.com.au> wrote on Tuesday, November 30, 1999 7:38 pm,
> Just to jump in and be an unproductive nit-picker... As I understand it,
> drones are the fertile males who sit on their bums being looked after by
the
> workers (infertile females). When the queen whistles, they come a runnin'!
There's nothing like using the exact opposite term than intended to screw up an example!
You are exactly right. The drones are the fertile males and the workers are the infertile females. My example should have talked about the evolution of the "worker" not "drone" as being necessary to the hive survival so that the breeders could pass on their genes to the next generation.
-- Harvey Newstrom <mailto://newstrom@newstaffinc.com> <http://harveynewstrom.com> Author, Consultant, Engineer, Legal Hacker, Researcher, Scientist.