Some of these terms and categories are pretty much just that.  They may have had some descriptive value in the early days of the varroa vs. bee interaction.  In the 90s managed colonies were mostly commercial colonies, a few sideliners and fewer hobbyists.  There were then likely many pockets isolated from managed colonies where natural selection for resistance was possible and did occur.

With the CCD-inspired save the bees movement starting in the late 2000s all of these dynamics changed.  I doubt there is any place in mainland North America where gene flow from unselected colonies does not dilute any hopeful combinations for resistance through natural selection.  A two year survival cutoff may detect a few of those, but they may be few and far between, and likely ephemeral combinations that drown in the sea of bad genes inadvertently provided by the bee savers.

Strong artificial selection and fixing of selected material with controlled matings may be the only way out of this mess.

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