Yes, the dark bee is in trouble, but the paper you ci
Hi Peter and All

Yes, the dark bee is in trouble, but the paper you cited also has this in its discussion:

In the present paper, we have shown that several relatively
pure populations of A. m. mellifera still exist in northwest
Europe. These populations are genetically quite homogenous
as most of their genetic variation occurs within populations
and not between populations. However, despite
this uniformity at neutral genetic markers, A. m. mellifera
has survived throughout western Europe from Spain to
Norway and has developed several different ecotypes
(Ruttner et al. 1989), indicating that A. m. mellifera has a
relatively high evolutionary potential for local adaptation.
The extant genetic diversity of A. m. mellifera throughout
Europe therefore implies that this subspecies is a highly
valuable gene pool for controlled breeding programs selecting
for resistance against honeybee diseases.
It has been suggested that the native British A. m. mellifera
bees went extinct resulting from the act of the Isle of Wight
disease (Brother 1974), but others have argued that remnants
of these original populations still exist (Cooper 1986;
Ruttner et al. 1989). The relative distinctness of the British
populations in our comparative study supports the latter
argument and would justify and increase support of the
British authorities for the conservation of British A. m.
mellifera.

From the presentations made at a dark bee conference a couple of weeks ago:

http://www.sicamm.org/Aviemorereport.htm

.. it is pretty clear that the native race of the honeybee in western Europe in its pure form is hanging on here and there thanks mostly to a small number of enthusiasts. 


> and on the British Isles, most professional and hobby beekeepers today
> keep A. m. ligustica , A. m. carnica or synthetic strains such as the buckfast bee. 

That probably goes a bit too far.  It is likely that the most abundant bees in the UK are 'local mongrels' but with a strong base in native stock.  However recently there have been movements of non-native stocks into some of the refuges of pure native stock in the more isolated areas of the country, this time not due to commercial beekeepers importing queens, but new hobby beekeepers ordering their bees at a distance over the internet rather the more traditional route of turning to local beekeepers for help.  Such trade is entirely legal, and in the UK we have no officially recognised refuges for these unique stocks.

all the best

Gavin

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html

Access BEE-L directly at:
http://community.lsoft.com/scripts/wa-LSOFTDONATIONS.exe?A0=BEE-L