There's been some discussion lately about competition between bee species, especially honey bees and other bees. I thought I'd add a little from what IBRA has been contributing to the debate recently. We organized a scientific symposium on bee conservation in April, and I summarized for BEE-L one of the poster papers on the possible negative effects of introducing non-native honey bees to natural areas (in New Zealand). The symposium has now been written up for the latest issue of Bee World by Robert Paxton, and this is from his report. "The impact of honey bees on wild bees has generated much heated debate in beekeeping and more esoteric academic circles alike, and one of the four sessions at the meeting was entirely devoted to presentations addressing this issue. Competition between honey bees and wild bees is notoriously difficult to demonstrate in the field (Roubik, Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Panama), possibly, Thorp (University of California) suggested, because of the past elimination of those wild bee species most sensitive to such competition. "However, a view prevailed that honey bees (Buchmann, USDA Tucson), or even Bombus terrestris (Dafni & Schmida, University of Haifa and University of Jerusalem), are likely to compete with other bee species under some situations, and recent empirical evidence has demonstrated a negative impact of honey bees on the foraging and reproduction of wild bees in Germany, where honey bees are themselves indigenous. "In a more constructive vein, Sugden et al. suggest that we should aim to define the conditions under which inter-specific competition exist, and Corbet's (University of Cambridge) 'competition box' provides a novel and potentially useful experimental paradigm by which to do so". Proceedings from this meeting will be published jointly by IBRA, The Linnean Society of London and Academic Press early next year. The next issue of Bee World will have a fascinating review of competition between honey bees and native bees in Australia. More than in most other countries where honey bees have been introduced, beekeepers in Australia are facing increased calls for the exclusion of their business or hobby from conservation areas. This debate will not go away, until a lot more discussion and analysis have taken place. Andrew -- ************************************************************************** * From Andrew Matheson, Director, International Bee Research Association * * * * E.mail (home): [log in to unmask] * * (office): [log in to unmask] * * * * IBRA, 18 North Road, Cardiff CF1 3DY, UK * * Fax (+44) 1222-665522 Telephone (+44) 1222-372409 * * http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/ibra/index.html * * * **************************************************************************