A new generation of bee researchers is on the way and many have chosen the
African bee as a subject for study. For example, from a PhD Dissertation by
Maria Alice Da Silva Pinto: 

The spread of Africanized honey bees throughout most of South America,
Central America, and the southwestern United States, in such a short time,
is perhaps the most remarkable ecological event of the last decades.

The nearly coincidental arrival of Africanized honey bees and the parasitic
Varroa mite complicated understanding of the mechanisms underlying
Africanization. Whether a greater dilution of A. m. scutellata genes would
occur had the resident population not collapsed is unknown. However, it is
possible that the event hastened the demise of "pure" European honey bees
and had a major role in restructuring the post- Africanization population.  

In a crossbreeding experiment between Africanized and European bees,
Guzman-Novoa et al. (1996) found differential susceptibility of brood and
adult workers to Varroa mite. The authors reported:

* Susceptibility to becoming infested by Varroa was least in Africanized
brood followed by European, F1 of European mother, and F1 of Africanized mother.

* Adult European worker honey bees were more likely to become infested with
Varroa than were adult Africanized honey bees; whereas hybrid bees were
infested at a rate not different from that of the Africanized honey bees. 


-- MARIA ALICE DA SILVA PINTO, PhD Dissertation

******************************************************
* Full guidelines for BEE-L posting are at:          *
* http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm  *
******************************************************