Potential Range of Africanized Bees in the United States 

> As Africanized bees expand into temperate areas, their tropical adaptations are less advantageous. Cold weather seems to limit both their defensiveness and overwintering capacity. Africanized bees are more defensive in warm tropical regions and less so in cooler zones. In South America the bees do not overwinter south of 34 degrees S latitude, which corresponds roughly to Atlanta, Georgia. (Please note, however, that Africanized bees are found north of this latitude in the American West.) 

> In areas where their ranges overlap, African and European-derived bees interbreed, causing "hybrid zones" where bees share African and European traits. In Argentina, Africanized bees dominate in the northern semitropical regions but European bees dominate in the southern temperate areas; the area in between (ca. 32-34 degrees latitude) is a hybrid zone where bees have varying degrees of African or European traits. A similar pattern may occur in the United States, with African traits dominating in southern regions. 

Source: Keith S. Delaplane
Professor of Entomology
The University of Georgia
Bulletin 1290 / Reviewed March 2010

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