Thomas W. Culliney wrote:
> Apis mellifera scutellata is a subspecies or race of honey bee from
southern
> Africa that was introduced into Brazil in the 1950s. Africanized honey
bees
> are hybrids resulting from matings between queens and drones of that
> subspecies and those of European subspecies already present in the New
> World.

Well, the experiment as originally envisioned was that the African and
Europeans would hybridize and result in a more productive honeybee in a
tropical region, combining the productivity and relative (to scutellata) low
swarming with the more tolerant to tropical climates traits of scutellata.
When scutellata "escaped" it was hoped that "natural hybridization" would
take place and the defensiveness of scutellata would be toned down by
European honeybees.

This has pretty much played out to be vision and hope, not based in reality.
Scutellata has remained relatively pure in its immigration.  Small swarms of
scutellata invade European hives, and eventually take it over via
theiloky(SP?).  I'm sure I have the term incorrect here.  It's the trait
where a worker can lay a fertilized egg.  Anyway, the small swarm invades
the European colony, a worker lays a fertile egg, a scutella queen results,
kills the European queen and the colony is eventually Africanized, not
hybridized.  I forgot who presented this at ABF in San Diego, but her
credentials are believeable.  Perhaps Allen will remember her name.

Other references:
http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9002&L=bee-l&P=R786
http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind9712A&L=bee-l&P=R258

The short of it is, scutellata is remaining pure and to keep European bees
in a scutellata areas requires regular queening with queens of known
lineage.

Aaron Morris - thinking George is the man!