Pete, I don't know if you are simply trying to stimulate discussion, but
some of your points deserve a contrary response.

>European bees almost never launch a full scale assault without provocation
nor will they follow for hundreds of yards.

Back when I began beekeeping, a proportion of the feral, as well as managed
colonies, indeed launched attacks without provocation, and were "hotter"
than the SoCal ferals that I see today, although not as defensive as some
Arizona ferals that I've seen.  One must be careful when categorizing bees
as "European."  What we have the U.S. is a hodgepodge  of stocks brought
over with the common trait of gentleness.  Despite this, some of the most
widely distributed feral matrilines of A.m.m. developed high defensiveness.


> >Because they have analyzed the US population and have found it to be
> surprisingly diverse, not "increasingly homogeneous" at all.
>

This depends upon what was analyzed--nuclear DNA or mitochondrial DNA.  The
US managed population is remarkably lacking in diversity as far as mDNA is
concerned.  I'm not clear on the implications of this, but from an
empirical standpoint, the feral population has much more mitotype
diversity, despite its lack of assistance from humans.

>
> >And again, worth protecting for whose sake?


For beekeepers' sake.  As we tire of needing to continually treat for
varroa, we will eventually realize that selective breeding for mite
resistance is a definite goal.  We will need stock from which to breed.


>The honey bees are no respecters of genetic purity, the queens breed with
> the fastest drones on the wing, regardless from where they originate.
>

Not under natural situations.  Queens only breed with drones from the
immediate (within flight distance) surrounding area, thus allowing for the
development of races.

>
> >Presumably, most of the bees of southern Utah are pretty much
> Africanized.
>

I'd be careful about what you publicly presume : )

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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