Paul Cronshaw wrote:
 
>I am still getting swarm calls at this time of year in Santa Barbara.  The
>sizes of swarms range from fist size to soccer ball size.  All have queens.
>
>I am wondering if these swarms are the result of mites.  The bees are
>breaking the mite breeding cycle by swarming at this late in the season. I
>understand this is a trait of the AHB.
 
>Perhaps we are seeing survival of the fittest occurring in the local bee
>population?
 
   I think Paul is correct and have already suggested that possibility
elsewhere (the latest with Dr. Yaacov Lensky from Israel, when he
interacted with Robbin Thorp and me last week out on Santa Cruz Island).
That is, we can expect that natural selection will first be more evident at
the colony level (as in frequent swarming) than at the individual behavior
level (as in a few of the workers biting mites).  Some of the colonies that
swarm frequently will persist long enough to send out other swarms, etc.
 
   By contrast, workers in a colony are a motley crew --- collectively
derived from a dozen or more drones.  If, for example, an insufficient
number of workers fight mites, colony death will occur --- along with the
mite fighting workers, who don't reproduce anyway.
 
   I live in Santa Barbara also and caught a swarm in one of my backyard
swarm hives.  I anesthetized the bees and counted them, as well as the
varroa mites.  The bees numbered only 2000 (quite a small swarm), with 56
mites among them.
 
                                                Adrian
 
 
 
 
Adrian M. Wenner                         (805) 893-2838 (UCSB office)
Ecol., Evol., & Marine Biology           (805) 893-8062  (UCSB FAX)
Univ. of Calif., Santa Barbara           (805) 963-8508 (home office & FAX)
Santa Barbara, CA  93106
 
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*  "Discovery is to see what everyone else has seen,                  *
*         but to think what no one else has thought."                 *
*                                       ---    Albert Szent-Gyorgyi   *
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