Hello Bill and All,
Bill wrote:
> I don't think that this should give us much of a hope for visual
> identification unless we happen to keep cordovan Italians and see that
they  get superceded; then we might know that test time is at hand.

I agree  with Bill on his comments.  One reason I posted the post was to
show the person on the list which posted.

"Africanized bees in Arizona! I don't think so!"

that I certainly do not think for a minute that AHb is the figment of a
researchers mind hunting for research dollars.
 I have dug deep into AHB research. I looked last night at over  200 sites
before finding the capensis information I posted today.

The point about primitive methods Bill is because in researching  the actual
abstracts of AHb research I have found very primitive methods used to
determine africanization. Wing venation has been around for decades
(invented by Dr.Warwick  Kerr) and DNA for many years.

One of the most famous studies done on the africanization process was done
by a person I admire so will leave the name out   unless pressed further.
Here was the way the hives  used in the test in the foreign  country were
rated from the abstract into three classes for the test.

category :strongly africanized

1.colony manipulation resulted in more than ten stings, bees not calm on the
combs,queens hard to see,brood area extensive

category: intermediate:
2. zero to ten stings ,bees controllable with smoke

category :European:
3.strongly European:
two or fewer stings, bees remained on comb,queens easily located ,brood not
covering entire  face of comb.

The above sounds like a method a beekeeper might choose for his private
research not a world famous researcher writing an abstract. No FABIS testing
or DNA.

Up to a few years ago AHB was simply passing through on its way north.

Now AHb seems to have decided to make its new home in the areas shown on the
USDA map I posted.

We need to take a closer look now   and use DNA testing..

Look what happened when Denis Anderson took a closer look at varroa, *varroa
distructor*
.
Dr. Harbo and Dr. Harris realized when trying to raise a varroa tolerant bee
that the method of selection by survivors with the lowest mite levels was
flawed. On taking a closer look we found *SMR.*

In my opinion we need to look carefully at AHb in Arizona and try and figure
out what is going on before we are looking  at a problem which could have a
big impact on the beekeeping industry.

The August issue of the American Bee Journal came today. On page 571 is part
three in a series about South Africa beekeeping AND the cape bee by Dr.Wyatt
A. Mangum . On page 573 Dr. Mangum makes the following comment which I whole
heartily agree with:

"Perhaps the cape bee problem will make us more aware about a possible
accidental importation of cape bees into the U.S."

Dave A. of the list posted " only one capensis trait worker would be all
that's needed to start a problem in European bees.

Unless Blane  White  (interesting  article about Blane on page 576 of the
same issue written by Don Jackson) and myself need new glasses and our eyes
were lying  there is a   strong psuedo queen hive in Arizona which Dr.
Hoffman showed us in her slides. If  those slides were indeed taken in 1990
as one BEE-L person suggested what *could* the problem be like  at present
twelve years later?

I assume Dr. Hoffman did not respond back to Allen?

Sincerely,
Bob Harrison

Ps. Coverups only complicate a problem as in the case of Richard Nixon and
Bill Clinton.