Hello Peter, Randy and All.
 The words and their meanings are important.
 The idea of wild Apia Mellifera would be very hard to prove in this day and age. The complex of the genetic structure  brings you back to the chicken or the egg. Science has shown that the same gene in a different Loci will produce a different trait. 
 Darwin was working with a long time frame with evolution. The adaption to the geographic environment was the driving force. Now that Man has moved the honeybee all over the globe we see that trait changes have to take place very fast if we are to keep bees in a new location. So we breed for traits that will survive in the new environment. 
 Over the last 49 years I have seen many changes in our honeybees. Now and then you see something that is way out of the norm. 40 years ago I had a hive that was full of bees in 5 deeps. The State inspector called me at home to tell me that hive was the meanest he has ever seen. He was in his mid. 80's . I separated it into 5 hives because you could not work them without using a bee brush on your veil so you could see. That was not a wild hive. But the genetics was very special. How did that happen? I did get Tom Rinderer book. ( Honeybee Genetics) and spent a year trying to understand the science of genetics. I did talk to Tom Rinderer on the phone a few times.  
 We can debate words but what we have is a forced change in a species by Man. May Darwin rest in Peace.
Best Regards
Roy Nettlebeck
Tahuya River Apiaries    

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