Andy Nachbaur wrote:
 
> Its that time of year when beekeepers seem to drift off into the Land of Oz
> and ruminate about "killer" bees so here is a t(h)read started in
> sci.agr.beekeeping posted so you won't feel left out.<G>
>
> On Mon, 2 Nov 1998 20:47:42 -0800, [log in to unmask] (Peter Amschel)
> wrote:
>
> >There are not any dramatic, and maybe not even any subtle anatomical
> >differences between Africanized honeybees and normal honeybees. Insect
> >biologists don't say exactly how they are supposed to be able to tell the
> >difference anatomically. It seems to be established in the scientific
> >community, therefore, that the Africanized bee is identified by its
> >behavior, not by its anatomy.*
 
Very true, but a very small number of people have ever put the time and
concentration into reading Daly and Balling, 1974, the original paper which
describes how morphometric measurements are analysed (In fact, maybe I should
post a copy of this paper on our website). The reasoning seems to be, that if
it is too difficult to understand after a cursory reading, it MUST be false,
deceptive, self-serving, and downright dishonest, along with anyone who uses or
practices it.
The main reason that behavior has become the basic knife-edge with which to
separate "good" from "bad" bees is the very long and involved (relatively)
process of dissecting and mounting parts of the bee for analysis and
computation. The fact that this process is long, tedious, and confusing to the
"uninitiated" or to the casual reader does not mean that the process or its
results (or its practioners) are false or even faulty ( Daly often stated that
the databases supporting this method would need updating as the bee moved into
new areas......but few, if any attempts have been made to do this in the US,
except by the Weslaco USDA Lab, where Bill Rubink has led a lonely battle to
update the data and techniques for ten or more years.).
ANYWAY, stay good, bee well, and don't let the bugs bite.
     - John Edwards, Tucson - (
HTTP://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/home/edwards/index.html )
 
And, IMHO, anyone who thinks the bees (in S. Arizona) are the same as always
has not been spending much time in the beeyard. JE.