Hi all

Randy called out my statement that most honey bee populations in the developed world are not pure subspecies. I claimed they are admixtures of various types. This is supported by recent work by Marina D Meixner, and her associates. She points out that the Italian and Carniolan types have been distributed world wide and isolated types, even on Mediterranean islands, can regarded as endangered. It is true, however, that these issues are more important from a conservation point of view than from the point of view of beekeeping, where it may be desired to produce vigorous hybrids -- in contrast to the goal of preserving original phenotypes for biological and historical reasons.

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The original range of A. mellifera mellifera extends from the Alps and Carpathians to the latitude of 60°N, from the Atlantic seashore of western Europe eastward to the Urals and beyond. Today the distribution of this subspecies is much reduced: in many Central and Northern European countries (such as Germany, Austria, Denmark and Sweden) beekeepers have almost completely substituted the native honey bee population with subspecies of greater commercial interest.

The natural area of distribution of the Italian honey bee A. m. ligustica is the Apennine Peninsula, confined by the Alps and the Mediterranean Sea. Its hybrid origin from different refugial populations has been demonstrated using molecular markers (Franck et al., 2000). The Italian bee is very popular for commercial beekeeping and is currently present wherever professional beekeeping is practiced worldwide.  

The “Carniolan bee” A. m. carnica originates from Central-Eastern Europe (the area covering Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia- Herzegovina, Albania, Serbia, Hungary and Romania) (Ruttner, 1988; Sušnik et al., 2004; Muňoz et al., in press), but due to its commercially attractive traits such as high honey production and gentleness, is now distributed almost worldwide.  

To the south, A. m. cecropia is distributed all over southern Greece, including the Peloponnese and the islands (Ruttner, 1988), where, in spite of importations, some areas still possess populations of their native subspecies (Bouga et al., 2005a; b).  

Geographical isolation of Mediterranean islands, which are characterized by mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers, has promoted the differentiation of locally adapted subspecies: A. m. siciliana in Sicily (Sinacori et al., 1998); A. m. ruttneri in Malta (Sheppard et al., 1997); A. m. cypria in Cyprus (Ruttner, 1988; Kandemir et al., 2006) and A. m. adami in Crete (Ruttner, 1980). The conservation status of these bees must be regarded as endangered. 

Meixner, Marina D., et al. "Conserving diversity and vitality for honey bee breeding." Journal of Apicultural Research (2010).

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