> The most startling new information I heard came from Dr. Gloria Hoffman of
> the Tucson Bee Lab. Dr. Hoffman said she considers Arizona now 100%
> Africanized.
> The black Africanized bees of Arizona have been showing capensis traits
> with intercasts with laying worker queens.In short they are showing all
the
> Capensis traits of taking over European hives.  Dr. Hoffman went into
great
> detail about the labs observations. At the end of the talk I asked if she
> was saying the AHB in Arizona are showing capensis traits. her answer
> was "You are exactly right". Capensis were brought into Brazil by Dr. Kerr
> and she believes the capensis strain is alive and well in Arizona.

I guess the most obvious questions that this report raises are these:

1.) IF the bees in Arizona are Africanized (meaning AFAIK that at least one
of the hives in each yard contain at least one bee that can be traced back
to recent African origin), and IF these bees migrated all the way up from
Brazil over a period of a half century or so, then why, has no one else
noticed this trait?  These bees have been examined in great detail and at
great expense by an impressive list of US and non-US scientists over that
time.

2.) One the other hand, was this characteristic diseminated with queens bred
by the USDA and distributed in the USA?

3.) Could this thelytoky be indigenous to Arizona?  It was first brought to
USDA attention by Arizona beekeepers before anyone else was aware of it, and
before the AHB was known to hit Arizona -- if I have my facts straight.
Maybe Dee will fill in the time line and documentation.

4.) Why has the USDA witheld this info this long?  (Assuming it did).

5.) If the Arizona origin is not plausible, then could this thelytoky be the
result of an unreported separate introduction of bees into the Southern US
or Mexico by a beekeeper a decade or more ago?

6.) Could this newly observed thelytoky effect simply be the concentration
and expression of an existing characteristic of all honey bees caused by the
environment, or by the selection by beekeepers, in a specific region.  My
understanding is that the fire ant shifted gears some years ago to mutate
into the version that currently has proven to be a scourge.  The main
differernce between the new Super Ant and the old version is that the
current fire ant now tolerates multiple queens.  Could this not be a
somewhat similar adaption?

6.) Is this expression of thelytoky destructive like that of the cape bee in
scutellata in South Africa, or a potential boon to US beekeepers?

allen