>For example, which is better: the trait of the European bee to hoard honey
and wait for better conditions, or the trait of the tropical bee to abscond
and seek better conditions?

Pete, let's dispense with terms like "better," which put a human value
judgment on a phenomenon.  Despite the tropical model covering a greater
landmass, due to the random current dispersion of tectonic plates, I'd
hardly rate it as "more adaptive" in general.

Clearly, the tropical model is more adaptive in a tropical savannah habitat
suffering from seasonal food dearth.  And conversely, the hoarding model is
more adaptive in a cold-winter habitat.

It  seems obvious to me that the African and European races are each
adapted to their realized niches, despite the fact that they are of the
same species, and that gene exchange occurs between them.

It does not appear to me that their very different behavioral strategies
occurred by chance.  Rather, it is far more likely that the process of
natural selection shifted the genetics and epigenetics of the races to be
more adaptive to their respective realized niches.
-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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