study on kin selection and relatedness the worker wasps were considerably more related to the queens than to other workers. On average, workers have an r=0.37 for relatedness to queens. Worker to worker relatedness B. mellifica genetics show high levels of relatedness among workers despite the large amount of queens per colony. R=0.23 for all workers to each other, which is significantly lower than the relatedness of workers to queens. Genetic relatedness was determined in the study using PCR. DNA microsatellites are good genetic markers for studying relatedness due to their Mendelian behavior and high variability. DNA was sampled from the whole wasp, thorax and head, or thorax alone in this study. Worker-queen conflict The split-sex ratio is a result of the asymmetrical relatedness between brothers and sisters, since B. mellifica are haplodiploid. When there are many queens, males are produced. Since workers can share a maximum of 3/4 of their genes with sisters, they favor caring for female siblings over male siblings, who only share a maximum of 1/2 of their genes. Since this wasp follows a cyclical monogynous pattern, there is increased relatedness among all of the progeny. The split-sex ratio is the most distinct in any swarm-founding wasp currently studied. Research done on kin selection and relatedness showed that queens produce the eggs that become males, not workers. Workers 'police' each other to make sure the queens produce most, if not all, of the males. Interaction with other species Diet Brachygastra mellifica is very good at searching and feeding on Diaphorina citri in tree flushes, an introduced species that has become one of their major prey items. These wasps feed not only on the fluids from the prey, but may also eat the entire exoskeleton of D. citri. They also may consume larvae of the weevil Anthonomus aeneoulus and a moth from the family Alucitidae. Trophallaxis, or regurgitation, has also been observed on the nest surface of the Mexican honey wasp, in which the forager regurgitates a drop of nectar to a responsive wasp. Predators Diogmites angustipennis is a robber fly known to prey on honeybees that has been observed preying on B. mellifica. Orb-weaving spiders have also been known to take single wasps as prey outside the nest. Attacks on the entire nest are also common. Both opossums and golden-fronted woodpeckers have been seen dissecting a nest. Other dismembered nests have damage that is similar to