I was interested to note Andy's comments about Egyptian bees. I am not sure of his context but I do recall reading an article where bees in the USA had some DNA work carried out on them and were shown to be Egyptian in origin. Eleven years ago I researched and wrote a book on the beekeeping history of Queensland (a State in Australia). When I was loking at the origins of the Italian bee in Australia I came across several references to Egyptian bees. Apparently in the American Bee Journal and Gleanings in Bee Culture in the 1890's and early 1900's there is mention made of developing a yellow Italian by crossing the ligurian bees with Cyprian bees, Egyptian, and Holyland bees. In the 1890's, here in Australia they were importing Punic bees from the USA and breeding this in Australia. Apparently the Punic bees originated from the area around Algeria and Tunisia in north Africa. There was an American, Mr. Frank Benton who had established an apiary in Cyprus and was exporting Cyprian bees to the USA and Australia. So I suppose it will not be surprising when some DNA work is done to find that the USA and Australia have a background of many of these races. Our Italian today is far removed from those ligurians that were originally imported from Italy. In a newspaper article in Australia in 1887 it says "Even in Italy the purity of the Ligurian strain cannot be universally guaranteed for beekeepers there are now constantly experimenting with the crosses of Cyprian, Syrian, Carniolan etc. It is not unlikely, therefore, that Kangaroo Island will in time become the depot from which all the world's beekeepers obtain their pure Italian strain." Kangaroo Island is an island off South Australia which is a sanctuary for the ligurian bee. Trevor Weatherhead AUSTRALIA