Dee asked:
>what happened to all the imported stuff into the USA, and/or
>bees that were given out from Kellys Island, and why
>haven't they taken hold also? If not, then what is the
>problem with so-called AHBs for dilution?

QUOTED MATERIAL:

As a forecast, Roger A. Morse (Bees and Beekeeping. Ithaca, New York:
Cornell University Press. 1975) made this statement, "There is little
justification for the concern that the Africanized bees will spread
northward and into the United States." He based that prediction on his past
research that uncovered reports of early importation of African bees to
North America in the late 1890's, those bees did not successfully adapt nor
did the African bee adapt in Poland. As a result of those importations, he
also believed that African genes were subsequently introduced into colonies
of bees in North America and Europe. 

Hence, the Africanization of bees in the United States and Europe already
occurred with aggressive behavior presumably 'tamed down' by hybridization.
He [was] correct in that tropical bees do not adapt to northern temperate
weather however, what Morse did not foresee was the fact that Apis mellifera
scutellata hybrids are very adaptable to southern temperate-zone conditions.
Further, after hybridization with European varieties, the feral AHB colony
gene pool reverts back to the genotype found in South Africa, commonly known
as the East African Honey Bee. 

FROM:
Daniel LeBas, University of Nevada, Las Vegas. 
From PRACTICING ANTHROPOLOGY Vol. 22, No. 2, Spring 2000.
Reprinted with permission from the Society for Applied Anthropology

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