David Morris wrote (in response to other queries):
>I seem to recall reading an article several years ago in ABJ about a research
>project on some islands off the coast of southern California. There is a
>population of feral European honey bees that were supplanting the native
>solitary bees, etc. The plan was to remove all the feral bees and see how
>the native bees responded. I believe the islands were Federal property.
Good for David! We now near the end of our eighth season of research,
with some relevant publications as follows:
1989 Wenner, A.M. "Bee-lining and ecological research on Santa Cruz
Island. Amer. Bee Journal. 129(12):808-809.
1993 Wenner, A.M. and R.W. Thorp. The honey bees of Santa Cruz Island.
Bee Culture. 121 (5):272-275.
1994 Thorp, R.W., A.M. Wenner and J.F. Barthell. 1994. Flowers visited
by honey bees and native bees on Santa Cruz Island. Pages 351-365 in:
Halverson, W.L. and G.J. Meander (eds.), Fourth California Islands
Symposium: Update on the status of resources. Santa Barbara Museum of
Natural History, Santa Barbara, CA.
1994 Wenner, A.M. and R.W. Thorp. Removal of feral honey bee (Apis
mellifera) colonies from Santa Cruz Island. Pp. 513-522 in: Halverson,
W.L. and G.J. Meander (eds.), Fourth California Islands Symposium: Update
on the status of resources. Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, Santa
Barbara, CA.
******
An irony: At about the very same time we proposed our study (Fall,
1987), varroa mites had destroyed colonies in Wisconsin. Now, feral
colonies have been effectively eliminated by varroa mites throughout
California but not yet on Santa Cruz Island (even though varroa is out
there). We will be presenting that material at the American Bee Research
Conference in Georgia this month (as well as some material on the
odor-search recruitment model and some on swarm hive effectiveness).
Adrian
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