>True to a small point,  they may grow longer hair as allowed by genetics,

> but an elephant transplanted to Norway does not become a mammoth,  it dies.
>

Actually, Charlie, the elephants that invaded Norway did indeed evolve into
mammoths.

>
> >I still disagree strongly with the
> concept are bees are adapting to any climate issues.


I cannot fathom why not.


> >Whats happened is natural selection has eliminated those without the
> traits.
>

Charlie, that is all that natural selection can do--it eliminates non
adaptive traits.  The upregulation of "hidden" genes, spontaneous mutation,
and hybridization create the genetic means for the exhibition of novel
traits, upon which natural selection then exerts pressure.

Natural selection does not work toward any goal.  It simply kills the less
fit at a greater rate than the more fit.  And as Pete points out, there is
a great deal of randomness and luck involved.

>
> >What happened was the
> queens who genetically were prone to those traits survived.
>

To a biologist, this is called "adaptation."


> >You won't see a queen change her habits,  that would be adapting.
>

No it wouldn't be called that.  The terminology is important.  You will
very much see queens change their habits--it happens in different climates
and throughout the year.  The term for this is "behavioral plasticity," not
"adaptation."

>
> >Obviously as you point out,  over time the gentics become different.
> Such as we see now.  But that's not happening in our lifetimes.
>

It's sure happened in my lifetime!  I've seen it over and over again in my
bees as each new parasite was introduced to the population.

>how and why do we let the term Locally
> adapted into our vocabulary when we cannot define it or show it??
>

We start by properly defining terms.  There has been a lot of confusion on
this thread about the difference between behavioral plasticity and
adaptation.

Jeremy noted: If someone is selling treatment-free
bees, how much might possibly be attributed to frequent splitting and
associated brood breaks and rapid turnover rather than any actual mite
resistance.

This is a really important point to keep in mind.  I see over and over that
some of those who are claiming that they are producing mite-resistant stock
are strongly benefiting my continually splitting the hives, ala Mel
Disselkoen, who controls varroa simply by constant splitting.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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