> At the Savannah ABF convention Dr. Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman head of the > Tucson Bee lab reported strong capensis traits being by the bee lab in the > feral bees of Arizona. Is this what she said? Or is it how you interpreted what she said? Did she actually refer to thelytoky and other Arizona feral bee characteristics as 'capensis traits', or merely mention that capensis has the thelytoky trait, and explain that thelytoky has been observed, to a much lesser extent, in other bees? There is a huge difference. > Could capensis genes explain some of Dees success? I believe it could. Well, it could -- if there were any evidence of capensis genes. BUT, there is not any evidence, or we would have heard by now. You can be very sure the ARS has looked, and looked hard. I don't think they know what they have. I think they are still trying to figure it out. If it were a simple answer like capensis, the word would be out, and there would be no mystery. Lusbys have provided the Tucson lab with bee samples for many years, and if I remember correctly, Lusbys told me that thelytoky is not a new characteristic in Lusby bees; thelytoky was observed by previous generations -- long before Kerr's bees got to Tucson. allen http://www.internode.net/honeybee/diary/