The name Brother Adam excites variously emotions such as reverence, indifference, and disdain. I happen to be of the camp that regards him as a pioneer in the field of honey bee improvement. Ruttner, who named a bee after Brother Adam, said this in his epic book "Biogeography and Taxonomy of Honeybees":

> No overview of the geographical variability of honeybees could have been achieved without the kind help of the many colleagues who collected the bee samples, sometimes under difficult conditions. Since it is impossible to list them individually, I want to name only one of them, as representative of all others, to whom l owe the greatest individual contribution: Brother Adam of St. Mary's Abbey, Buckfastleigh, UK, whose collection from his journeys round the Mediterranean furnished the basis for the data bank. [He] furnished the valuable series of more than 400 samples from countries all over Europe and the Mediterranean gathered by Br. Adam during his many exploratory excursions in the years 1952-1976. 

He has this to say about the bee he named after Brother Adam:

> Summarizing, A. m. adami  is a very well-characterized island race (population in 1976 about 75,000 colonies). It is somewhat difficult, however, to delimit the border of this population to the east. The bees of the East Aegean Islands (Karpathos, Rhodos, Kos, Chios, Lesbos) are very similar to A. m. adami  (Ruttner 1980a). Further, only a gradual variation is found among the bees of these islands and of the west of continental Asia Minor. Adami  and anatoliaca  doubtless constitute well-defined, distinct races. The taxonomic classification of the bees of the Aegean Islands, taking an intermediate position, seems to be a question of the individual view of the taxonomist. Subspecies groups frequently show gradual variation, and in these cases it may be appropriate to take the situation as testimony of local evolution rather than to impose rigid classifications.

If anyone is still reading, here Ruttner makes a statement on the importance of external characteristics:

> Reviewing the available data on variability in honeybees it has to be stated that the morphometric differences between races, generally considered of major significance, are mainly an external label ("for the taxonomist's convenience"). Only few of them have a proven adaptive significance (size, hair). The differences which really count, however, are of behavioral and physiological kind. 

> Only the numerical characterization of the populations, together with the description of behavior, shows the true geographic variability and will end current generalizations and convenient stereotypes. 

PLB

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