The shortest eggs laid by A m mellifera laying workers were shorter, a
nd the longest were longer than eggs deposited by queens. The coeffici
ent of variance for length of eggs deposited by laying workers was 3.5
times higher than for eggs from queens. Eggs from queens were longer
(1.620 mm), but narrower (0.368 mm) than eggs from laying workers (1.5
79 and 0.378 mm). Correlation coefficient between length and width was
significant for eggs from laying workers but not from queens. Both ty
pes of A mellifera eggs were longer than eggs from A florea queens, bu
t shorter than from A florea laying workers.