RE:
> some of the original material used is not now available in its former state, the reason being either through heavy hybridization or extinction.

I wrote:
> Any guesses as to what that is supposed to mean? What bees have gone extinct? A bit daft, I should say.

I wish to apologize to the author of the the above statement for my response which was made in haste. He advises me that Apis mellifera adami has gone extinct in its range, due to tracheal mites. 

Adami was described by Ruttner in 1980: "The bee ... of the island of Crete is named after Brother Adam who collected the first samples. The Cretean bee is very similar to bees of Western Anatolia and the East Egean Islands"

I thought the reference was to the English bee, which was thought to have been lost to similar causes, but wasn't. The English bee is classified as A. m. mellifera, which still occurs throughout Europe. 

The whole question of classification is highly controversial, in any case. The honey bee has been subdivided, lumped together, etc. for a hundred years. Even the number of species is controversial. Are there four or eight? 

Not being from a country with a native bee, it's not my battle. Almost all countries at one time or another have claimed a native bee, even the US. "Racial purity" is a concept which leads nowhere worthwhile, IMHO. 

PLB

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