--
From: "Randy Oliver"
Subject: Re: [BEE-L] Misguided enthusiasm?

>It seems that this thread has strayed far from its title.
>
>It's obvious that *A. mellifera *is an invasive species of pollinator in
>North America, and is well established as feral or wild-type populations in
>certain ranges.  By this time, any remaining native pollinator species have
>demonstrated their ability to coexist with a wild-living honey bee
>population.
         Possibly so.  But the trend to put larger loads down may well 
have an effect.  A concern in Australia is that the pollination of some 
native species could be affected.  I.e.  Increase one species and 
decrease another.  Not all that likely as in Australia the environment 
is driven by fire.  A bit too much recently.   Some interesting work was 
done here with honey bees versus native bees in a remote area.  Remote 
enough to need helicopters to get the bees in.  In this case the native 
bees increased in numbers.  The hypothesis was that there was a massive 
increase in insect numbers because of the honey bees and therefore a 
reduction in predation on the native bees.

Geoff Manning

             ***********************************************
The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned
LISTSERV(R) list management software.  For more information, go to:
http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html