This is  false. Italian bees, which are brown to golden colored, are NOT
tropical.  They originated in the foothills of the Alps, in  Lombardy.


Two elderly gentlemen (not beekeepers themselves), now long gone, spoke to  
me of the 'black Italians' that were around in this part of  England when  they 
were young in the 1920s/30s. They remembered them especially for their  
fearsome tempers.
 
Is it possible that:
a) the temper arose from cross mating between imported Italians (Am  
Ligustica) and the native English bee (Am mellifera)?
b) in those days imported Italians were black in they came from a higher  
altitude as Peter suggests, where a black body subjected to solar radiation  
would enjoy a longer working day than a paler bee?
 
Chris

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