I had thought about posting this study in the local adaption/north south thread.
It would seem to me that AHB is example of north/ south adaption
"A recent study by Wallberg et al. (2017) on honey bees from Eastern Africa found that A. m. scutellata honey bees were only recovered from locations where elevations remained below 1100 m. The presence of A lineage honey bees at elevations greater than 1300 m in Utah could be due to hybridization between Africanized honey bees and European honey bees allowing them to adapt to higher elevations."
"Two haplotypes have only been observed in Utah thus far."
“Among the 10 A lineage haplotypes, only two (A4a’ and A4’’) are unique to Utah when compared to the rest of the United States”
The idea that UT holds unique African genetics is interesting to say the least, As was the population not showing signs of contact with mites.
"Also, from our samplesfor our study, usually consisting of 20-40 worker honey bees, we have not observed any Varroa mites. This sample size was not ideal forVarroa mite surveillance, but it does provide evidence of a lack of exposure to Varroa mites in these populations"
"In addition, given the high diversity of mtDNA haplotypes observed among feral honey bees in Utah, this gives evidence that these feral honey bees were not exposed to Varroa mites"
________________________________
From: Informed Discussion of Beekeeping Issues and Bee Biology <[log in to unmask]> on behalf of Pete B <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Tuesday, January 1, 2019 7:36 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: [BEE-L] Feral Honey Bees in Utah
Beekeepers in the United States have become interested in unmanaged feral colonies for their breeding programs, dubbed ‘survivor stock’ due to their ability to persevere despite the presence of pathogens and parasites
It is believed that feral colonies of European honey bees in the United States are rare in natural areas due to parasites and pathogens, especially Varroa
The objective of this study was to characterize the genetic diversity of honey bees from feral colonies and swarms in Utah, USA using DNA sequence data of the COI-COII mtDNA region of A. mellifera.
The commonness of the A lineage [African] in Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and San Diego County, California provides evidence that A lineage honey bees may be well adapted to the arid climate in the southwestern United States.
The high proportion of AHB from the feral Utah honey bee samples is of importance given the ability of AHB to outcompete native pollinator species in southern Utah, resulting in the local extinction of the Andrenid bee Perdita meconis. This brings a new component to the importance of documenting the occurrence of AHB in Utah and throughout the southern United States.
Dylan Cleary, & al
Mitochondrial DNA Variation of Feral Honey Bees (Apis mellifera L.) from Utah (USA)
Article in Journal of Apicultural Science · October 2018
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