>However, feral bees are nothing more than hived bees that have swarmed for
generations.

Or, more correctly, hived bees are nothing more than ferals that have
undergone a human-directed selection process for specific traits.

Dr Adrian Wenner demonstrated that the introduction of the varroa mite can
cause the complete extirpation of the honey bee from an island upon which
they had thrived for 150 years.  John is correct in that there is no reason
whatsoever to think that a parasite cannot completely cause the extinction
of a novel host.

Collene is correct in that several honey bee races appear to have some
degree of innate resistance mechanisms, and that given a large and allelicly
(sp?) diverse population, that enough will survive to allow a mite-adapted
population to rebound.

Randy Oliver

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