Finally, in answer to the original question: No, African bees are not just like European bees with a bad attitude.
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> In summary, our studies suggest that African-patriline advantages during queen replacement, preferential usage of African sperm by queens, nest usurpation, and greater developmental stability in African workers may all contribute to the loss of European paternal and maternal alleles in invaded areas. These are only some of the factors that favor the retention of the African honeybee genome in the Americas.
> Our research suggests that, in addition to factors that directly increase survival and reproductive success, the invasion of the African honey bee has involved more subtle behavioral mechanisms (queen behavior; worker-queen interactions; reproductive parasitism) that may contribute to asymmetrical gene flow between African and European populations.
Please see:
"Mechanisms that Favor the Continuity of the African Honeybee Genome in the Americas"
by Stanley S. Schneider and Gloria DeGrandi-Hoffman
Reprints available at
http://www.bioweb.uncc.edu/Faculty/Schneider/
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