Hi Everyone,
First I want to say Bob should be saying capensis or capensis-like
traits not genes ( fine distinction but the researchers were looking at
traits - behaviors - of the bees in AZ).  The traits reported were small
dark bees that invade other honey bee colonies and disrupt the colony by
becoming pseudo-queens and the colonies becoming african or dwindling.
Yes it really sounded like the reports of the capensis problem reported
from South Africa and very different from the behaviors reported in the
Rio Grande valley in TX with the africanized honey bees there.  Dr
Hoffman showed pictures of the black pseudo-queens and of colonies being
invaded and taken over.  Her statements were that it was very difficult
to keep european queened colonies in that area due to this invasive
pseudo-queen behavior and a significant portion of colonies in a
pollination placement setting ended up converting to african honey bees
even in a relatively short period in the africanized area.  Yes the talk
quickly brought to mind the whole capensis mess in South Africa.

Now I do have a question about this matter.  Is the observed set of
behaviors both in South Africa and in Arizona USA due to cape honey bee
traits or is it something that goes along with the thelytoky trait?  If
you select any given population of honey bees for thelytoky do you end
up with this nest invasion and take over charactistic as well?  If that
is the case you don't need capensis genes being introduced to end up
with capensis-like behavior.  Looks like we need more not less basic
research into honey bee biology to start to understand this issue.

FWIW

blane


******************************************
Blane White
MN Dept of Agriculture
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