Regarding the quote about Mendel, I seriously doubt he had bees from South America. Other sources indicate:

> He had also his bees -- not only the local race, but a wild species and the domesticated races of Carinthia, Italy, Egypt, and Cyprus. Beside each of the many hives hung a record sheet, which he kept up in his methodical and painstaking way, setting down such facts as the date of introduction of a queen, the date of swarming, the hours at which the drones flew, and other observations that might be useful to him in his real work, which was hybridization. Unfortunately, no records of the results he achieved have been preserved. 

MENDEL, THE MAN. P Popenoc - Journal of Heredity, 1925 - Am Genetic Assoc
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