> So we should maybe not refer to "African" bees, but rather talk about scutellata here.


Morphometric and genetic changes in a population of Apis mellifera after 34 years of Africanization
T.M. Francoy, et al  Genetics and Molecular Research 8 (2): 709-717 (2009)

> We examined the changes in the morphometric and genetic profiles of an Africanized honey bee population collected near where the original African swarms escaped, after 34 years of Africanization. Workers from colonies sampled in 1968 and in 2002 were morphometrically analyzed using relative warps analysis and an Automatic Bee Identification System (ABIS).

> The absence of European-derived mtDNA in the current population, indicating complete substitution of the European queens in the population would also help to explain the greater proximity of the Africanized bees to the A. m. scutellata group. Even with the distribution of more than 23,000 A. m. ligustica queens to the beekeepers at the beginning of the Africanization process  there was apparently no impact on the established population in 2002.

> The changes in the wing venation clearly indicate that Africanized honey bees continued to differentiate in the period from 1968 to 2002. The Mahalanobis square distances clearly show that the distance between the Africanized population and all the other subspecies increased considerably between 1968 and 2002. Thus, the current populations of Africanized bees have evolved a unique profile, different from the subspecies that originated these bees.

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