In his book "In Search of the Best Strains of Bees" Brother Adam wrote: "The
Egyptian bee is undoubtedly one of the primary races from which came the
orange varieties of the Near East, that is the Syrian, Cyprian, Cilician,
and possibly the Armenian." This has been corroborated , as DNA has shown
that the bees of Egypt, Italy and the Balkans constitute one lineage.
Brother Adam did not include the Carniolan strain, but it is known that it
sometimes shows yellowish coloration, and the DNA establishes the genetic
link to Egypt.

Brother Adam had a slightly unconventional explanation of the origin of the
European black bees. He stated: "The Tellian bee, the native bee of Tunisia,
Algeria and Morocco is another of the primary races. This coal black bee is
the source of the numerous sub-varieties which spread via the Iberian
Peninsula, Central Europe, and Northern Asia. This would include the black
bee of Sicily." (1)

The countervailing idea is that Apis mellifera mellifera is a separate
lineage from the bees of northwestern Africa and southern Spain, but that
view is no longer universally held. Following the idea that bees may have
come into Western Europe from north Africa is this from a recent study: 

"Apis mellifera is composed of three evolutionary branches including mainly
African (branch A), West and North European (branch M) and South-East
European (branch C) populations. The existence of morphological clines
extending from the equator to the polar circle through Morocco and Spain
raised the hypothesis that the branch M originated in Africa. Analyzing 11
populations sampled along a transect France - Spain/Portugal - Morocco -
Guinea ... we show that Iberian populations are very similar to French
populations when considering microsatellite markers." (2)

It had already been known that the bees from southeastern Africa
(scutellata, capensis, unicolor) are closely related to iberica and
intermissa (Spain and Morocco) as well as to unicolor, the bee of
Madagascar. This group is branch A, mentioned above. Unicolor, iberica and
intermissa are all dark black and have characteristic African DNA. (3)

So from the foregoing it can be seen that all three lineages may have in
fact come into Europe from Africa and the various colors were already
established in the tropics, disputing the idea that bees are darker only in
colder regions and that this coloration is "caused by" or is an adaptation
to cold. For that to be confirmed, one would also have to show that a darker
color produces some particular advantage to the colony. This has never been
demonstrated.

So, the color of bees isn't related to latitude or climate. Ashleigh Milner
wrote: "The different races of A.mellifera can generally be differentiated
in physiological terms. Bees from warmer climates tend to be smaller in size
and lighter in colour than those adapted to the colder regions, although
this rule is not invariable. " Actually, it is not even true. Both dark and
light colored bees can be found all over the world so the statement is a
gross oversimplification, at best.

As a side note is this on a variety of Apis cerana:

"In South Sulawesi [Indonesia, close to the equator] there are two very
different populations of Apis cerana. The coastal form is very small, black
and extremely defensive whereas the interior form from the higher and more
forested regions is at least 50% larger, yellow, and relatively gentle." (3)

sources:

1 "In Search of the Best Strains of Bees" Brother Adam

2 "The origin of West European subspecies of honeybees" Franck, P., Garnery
L., Solignac M., Cornuet J. M., 1998

3 "Diversity in the Genus Apis" edited by Deborah Roan Smith (Westview
Press, 1991)

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