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Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology

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Subject:
From:
Peter Loring Borst <[log in to unmask]>
Reply To:
Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]>
Date:
Thu, 4 Dec 2014 07:58:40 -0500
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Like I said, Randy and I may be talking about two different things. On the one hand, honey bee subspecies may have evolved as a result of complete isolation. On the other, they may be irrevocably lost as a result of the loss of barriers to gene flow.

> Human activity has a major impact on the distribution of the Western honeybee, Apis mellifera. While the species’ original range in Africa, western Asia and Europe (Ruttner 1988) has enormously extended to new continents over the last centuries, this process has not affected all subspecies to the same extent. Some of the 24 allopatrically distributed subspecies (Ruttner 1988) have experienced massive range expansions, while others faced contractions and fragmentation of original populations after the introduction of non-native honeybees by humans (Ruttner 1988; Garnery et al. 1998; Franck et al. 2000; De la Rua et al. 2002; Schneider et al. 2004; Jensen et al. 2005). These honeybee movements certainly involved admixture between different subspecies belonging to different evolutionary lineages. 

Our results demonstrate that subspecies are still highly differentiated, but gene
flow is not prevented by the current management strategies,
creating urgent demand for an improved conservation management
of A. m. mellifera. 

Soland-Reckeweg, Gabriele, et al. "Gene flow in admixed populations and implications for the conservation of the Western honeybee, Apis mellifera." Journal of insect conservation 13.3 (2009): 317-328.

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