Pete, I was referring to their stock selection, quoted below.
South1 was Pol-line, from USDA VSH and then outcrossed
South2 had no information on origin of stock
North1 started with USDA VSH, then outcrossed
North2 was Russian, so in this case of different stock, originally adapted
to the Primorsky, region, but since selected for adaptation to more
southerly climates, so kinda a stock undergoing north to south adaptation.

The above said, I'd have difficulty making the argument that any of the
stocks could be considered as anything near a regionally-adapted stock, due
in some cases to their origins, and with others due to outcrossing, and the
Primorski in transition.  Then they were tested, as noted by Seth in a
mid-latitude zone.

And the trial was not well designed to test the hypothesis that origin of
stock predicted wintering success, since there were too many other
variables.  Instead of equalizing all colonies at the beginning of winter,
they added the variables of location and stored pollen, varroa levels,
cluster size, and amount of winter stores--all of which have huge effect
upon wintering success.  If you want to run a trial to test a hypothesis,
then you need to hold all variables equal, other than the variable that is
being tested--in this case stock of origin.

"We interviewed the queen bee breeders to obtain information on their
breeding practices. Breeder South1 (FL) has been using Pol-line hygienic
Italian (a name given to this stock by the commercial provider) queens bred
for Varroa Sensitive Hygiene (VSH) behavior (Danka et al. 2016) with an
outcrossing mating system since 2011. Breeder North1 (VT) has been
selecting their own stock for local success (i.e., survival and
productivity) which started from VSH queens purchased in 2004 with limited
and sparse introductions from other regional beekeepers’ stocks. Breeder
North2(WV) is a member of the Russian Honeybee Breeders Association (RHBA)
and has been strictly using queens from the Russian stock since 2003. Both
the Pol-line and ARS Russian Bee stocks were developed through selective
breeding programs at USDA-ARS Honey Bee Breeding, Genetics and Physiology
Laboratory in Baton Rouge, LA (Rinderer et al. 2000; Danka et al. 2016). We
could not obtain information on breeding practices of breeder South2 (TX).
We investigated the genetic differentiation of the honey bee stocks used in
this study through microsatellite analysis (see Microsatellite Genotyping
below)."

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

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