Robert Brenchley wrote:

>
>  A man named Frank Benton also imported 'Punic' bees to the States
> at around the same time, though I'm not sure where he was (wouldn't be
> Arizona, I suppose?)
>
>     I assume that Tunisian bees would be A.m. intermissa.

Frank Benton's story is fascinating reading, if you can find some of the
historical accounts that have popped up at intervals. He left USDA in about 1906,
and supposedly his last report (of his field studies in "French Indochina" and
the possibility of importing Apis cerana to the U.S.) is missing or was never
filed. Over the preceeding 15-20 years, he travelled the mid-east, Meditereanean,
North Africa, etc., looking for bees, rearing queens, and sending them back to
the eastern U.S. for testing and distribution to beekeepers. Along the way, I
believe he invented the Benton (three-hole) shipping cage we see so often.