Africanized honey bees in Puerto Rico
DISSERTATION  by Rivera Marchand, Bert, Ph.D.,
University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras (Puerto Rico), 2006,

> The feral population of honey bees of Puerto Rico is Africanized by maternal descent although there is introgression of European alleles in the population. These bees have reduced defensiveness, behaving more like the gentle European bees than the Africanized bees of the continent. This gentle behavior seems to be a result of a life history tradeoff, where gentle colonies forage more, store more honey and produce more queen cells than defensive ones. Although less defensive the Africanized bees of the island are resistant to Varroa mites. The principle mechanism of resistance is grooming behavior, where bees remove and bite mites. It seems that selection on an island without predators favors gentle colonies, and the prevalence of mites, favors resistance. The results of this study shed light on the evolutionary processes that affect invasive species, particularly on islands

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