Abstract
Great fecundity of bee-colony strength is indispensable for a good crop of honey since it cannot be gathered in the colony of poor strength.
Fecundity alone is not, of course, the decisive factor, but the essential basis of the nectar gathering in bee-colony.
Whether the colony strength becomes larger or not depends upon the egg production of the queen in the colony.
The egg production of queen is affected by the conditions of mating procedure, nectar and others, but it seems probable that the number of ovarioles is one of the main factors controling her egg production.
Therefore, the number of ovarioles in queen is considered here as an important character for the improvement of nectar gathering. However, this character cannot be confirmed except by autopsy.
Thus correlation between several morphological characters and the number of ovarioles was examined, and proboscis length was found to show the highest
negative correlation.
This negative correlation was found to be controled by non-hereditary factors, especially, the nutritional condition in laval stage. Therefore it is unconceivable that a queen with a large number of ovarioles should produce the worker-bee of short proboscis.
To use a virgin queen with a short proboscis as egg-laying queen was effective for the increase of colony strength. Further, it was found that a sufficient effect can be expected from the selection of queen-bee by means of measuring " Glossa " alone instead of the whole length of proboscis.
