Trevor Weatherhead noted:

>We have a natural barrier by sea of 35 kilometres (about 22 miles) between
>islands that the Asian bees (Apis cerana) from Papua New Guinea have not
>breached.  We are fairly comfortable with this as there are two areas where
>they have not breached this distance in the past 8 years since they arrived
>on our door step.  There are no Apis mellifera in these areas as we are
>maintaining a ban on keeping of bees of the genus Apis in these islands so
>cannot comment on how far mellifera would go.

   Santa Cruz Island, offshore from Santa Barbara, CA, has had Apis
mellifera for more than 125 years (brought out by a beekeeper at that
time).  Santa Rosa Island, less than 10 km west, has never had honey bees
--- despite the short distance between those islands.

                                                        Adrian

Adrian M. Wenner                    (805) 963-8508 (home phone)
967 Garcia Road                     (805) 893-8062  (UCSB FAX)
Santa Barbara, CA  93106

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*
*  "When we meet a fact which contradicts a prevailing theory,
*     we must accept that fact and abandon the theory, even when
*     the theory is supported by great names and generally
*     accepted."
*
*                                       Claude Bernard --- 1865
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