QUOTE:
> Caucasians can display characteristics throughout the range of yellow to
black depending solely on their climate and latitude, so how can we
deterimine yellow caucasians from yellow AHB?

reply:
I don't know where you got this idea that color depends on climate and
latitude. I have pointed out, as have others, it's not true. The paper I
cited describes how to tell Africans from caucasians. DNA testing is hardly
new & it's pretty reliable.

QUOTE:
In this study, 211 Old World colonies, representing all known introduced
subspecies in the United States, and 451 colonies from non-Africanized areas
of the southern United States were screened to validate a rapid PCR-based
assay for identification of Africanized honey bee mtDNA. 

This PCR-based assay  … discriminates the mitochondrial haplotype (mitotype)
of Apis mellifera scutellata L. (ancestor of Africanized bees) from that of
A. m. mellifera, A. m. caucasia, A. m. ligustica, A. m. carnica, A. m.
lamarcki, A. m. cypria, A. m. syriaca, and some A. m. iberiensis, but not
from that of A. m. intermissa and some A. m. iberiensis. 

Nonetheless, given the very low frequency (<1%) of African non-A. m.
scutellata mitotype present before arrival of Africanized bees in the United
States, [the] assay can be used to identify maternally Africanized bees with
a high degree of reliability.  

from "Identification of Africanized Honey Bee Mitochondrial DNA",
by M. ALICE PINTO, et al.

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