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. -- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l for rules, FAQ and other info ---