It just happens that Warwick Kerr and Walter Rothenbuhler co-authored a paper together in 1968. From it, it is quite clear that nobody had a handle on aggressive behavior at that point, quite a few years after the introduction of African bees into Brazil. They wrote: Stinging behavior of bees has been considered genetically in a preliminary way. Two inbred lines differed widely in temperament. The Brown line stung at the rate of about 1.5 stings per brief colony visit and manipulation, whereas the Van Scoy line stung at the rate of about 0.01 times per identical visit. It was concluded that more than two loci underlie the differences in stinging behavior. The experience with African bees (Apis mellifera adansonii) in Brazil makes the Brown line seem gentle. This bee was introduced into Brazil in 1956 with the intention of using it in a careful breeding program. It has a number of apiculturally desirable features, but unfortunately is very cross. The differences in temperament between Italian and African bees is under study by a method developed by Stort. BEE GENETICS (1968) WALTER C. ROTHENBUHLER, JOVAN M. KULINCEVIC The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio, U.S.A. WARWICK E. KERR Universidade de sao Paulo, Ribeirao Pre to, Brazil *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html Guidelines for posting to BEE-L can be found at: http://honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/guidelines.htm