A. m. mellifera ( mellifica to some) is alive and well, and ALWAYS has been. It is the prevalent black bee of Northern Europe, found widespread from the Pyrenees well into Russia. Feral populations exist in many other countries too, amongst them being USA, and New Zealand. Some Pacific islands are reputed to have relict populations of the original British black bee present, in others it is the French or German version. What I am sure is being talked about is the British variant largely wiped out in the Isle of Wight disease epidemic early in the 20th century. The idea that it was totally extinct is nowadays questioned by a LOT of people. (With apologies to Bro. Adam adherants, who can be pretty quick with the flames.) Bees closely resembling the old bee are now found in many parts of the UK. One possible scenario is that the black bee did not die out before the relict population had a chance to mate with the virgins of the new strains brought in to replace the losses. Over the passing decades there has been a combination of convergent selection for beneficial traits, plus a crystallisation of the genetic material just from selection towards those bees best equipped to the British conditions. Thus the strain may have died out, but it probably passed on its genes just before it did, and today the better genes have gradually come back to the fore. Some of the poor characteristics like lack of acarine resistance have largely gone, naturally selected away from. So today the so called native 'mongrel' is approaching the old bee but with a genetic make up subtly altered to cope with the prevailing circumstances. In some areas it is so close as to match all the old text book descriptions. Murray -- Murray McGregor