I agree with Dee, bees tend to  darker in north and also in places higher 
up. I have been working with bees in Somalia. There the bees are darker the 
more you go up the mountain. But there is exceptions. In Madagasgar all the 
bees from coast to mountain are black. They are also very calm bees. Maybe 
this is because they have very few if any natural mammal enemies in that 
island, other than humans which are quite recent problem for them.

Ari Seppälä
Finland

******************************************************
* Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at:          *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm  *
******************************************************