Hello Brad,
When you talked about not reading the Hive and the Honey Bee I felt compeled
to answer as I believe you pulled up the post from the archives I posted
about not putting human charactoristics on insects and listed reference
points from the book.
In answer to your basic question my answer would have to be yes. The
different races of A.mellifera do seem aware of the different races. This is
especially apparent with regards to A. mellifera scutellata. Many of our
best queen breeders report problems getting the Russian Carniolan queens
accepted.  In my opinion the problem is related to pheromone differences
instead of physical and color differences. I base the above simply on what I
have read . I have not had introduction problems with the common races of
bees used in the U.S. I suspect most of our U.S. bees are related somewhat
through the narrow gene pool. Maybe a researcher with greater expertise on
the subject  will help us out. Hope I have helped.
Sincerely,
Bob Harrison
Odessa, Missouri