>but there hasn't been time or sufficient environmental pressure for
biological adaptation, right?

Not sure.  What I've observed over my years of queen breeding is that it is
pretty easy to make a major shift in the traits of the bees in one's
operation in about three generations, even more in five. I've observed this
when I've bred (at various times focusing upon a single trait) for
temperament, color, AFB resistance, chalkbrood resistance, or tracheal mite
resistance.

Let me give a hypothetical example.  If one were to establish an apiary in
Canada with a mixture of bees from a Mediterranean region, plus bees from a
Northern European region, and then allowed them to overwinter without
special attention, there would likely be a far greater winter survival of
the Northern stock.  In only a few years, Nature would largely weed out
those colonies that did not exhibit good wintering ability.  At that point,
from your original mixture of stocks, what you'd have left would be bees
that were to some extent "locally adapted."

Imagine that in the same area there was only a single species of plant that
supplied pollen in the fall, but that most of the original colonies did not
find it attractive, and did not collect it.  But a few did.  Those colonies
would then have a huge selective advantage.  In a few generations, you'd
likely see your survivor colonies all collecting that pollen.  This would
clearly be a local adaptation.

>I think I am seeing local adaptation when I observe the ramping of brooding
in late winter which is supported by the consumption of winter stores.

Before humans messed with bee genetics, there would have been strong
natural selective pressure for local races to work out such timing.  In the
occasional year, early ramping might be a problem, but on average it would
give an advantage to those colonies having a larger field force coinciding
with the main flow.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

             ***********************************************
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