Barry wrote to all:
Is anyone in the US jurisdiction using Africanized
honeybees (AHBs)
in managed beehives? By that I mean, of course, AM
scutellata, or
scutellata hybridised with other races. I ask not to be
mischievous,
but
to follow up on endless and somewhat frustrating research
on how
varroa are affecting MY scutellata here in South Africa.

Reply:

There is no one using scutellata that I am aware of and we
are located in one of the most scrutenized areas of the
USA.

Further, for more information on our bees and their
composition since they have been much talked about on BEE-L
as to why we are succeeding against mites please see:

http://www.beesource.com/pov/lusby/beeanalysis.htm

here you will find analysis done on our bees by the USDA,
missing is still the DNA analysis done showing our bees as
a caucasian type strain and published in ABJ. I will be
sending that soon to Barry for posting at both
www.beesource.com and Biobee for further discussion.

As far as I know, no AHB (scutellata) have been found in
hives in Arizona to change the schematics found since these
analysis were accomplished under the direction of the USDA.
I also believe that this fact has been posted on BEE-L from
time to time that no AHB have been found in managed
colonies.

Further, take note of the pedigree signified by the wing
veins in our bees. Since wing veins have been known to not
change in history and morphometrics are much based on them
and I do not believe that our wing vein diference is do to
our breeding alone (sure wish it was though for we would
really be good then),this then opens the door for building
a case for NATIVE bees in the Americas. With places to look
for more bees with same veination i.e. San Diego (hills for
feral), Rocky Mountains, Applachian mts, Gulf Port States,
N. mexico, Texas, etc.

Regards,

Dee A. Lusby




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