> > >It's because when the trait is distributed in the real world, it swiftly > evaporates. It is not a dominant trait, like aggression in African bees, > which tends to move into the population and take hold. In the "real world" the trait would only evaporate under the absence of selective pressure by brood pathogens (I'd like to see results for the Hawaiian feral population, which naturally evolved resistance to AFB after it decimated the population). In California operations, which supply much of the bee stock for the rest of the country, the trait is continually selected for by those participating in the program. I was under the impression that a similar situation would exist in Australia. Aussie beekeepers tend purchase selected stock, due to their desire to avoid F1's and F2's hybridized with the dark feral stock. Thus my query. Perhaps Peter, Trevor, or another Aussie can better explain. Re traits for "aggression" (actually defensiveness) taking hold, Brother Adam pointed out that some African races of A. mellifera are quite docile. Similarly, most European races (apparently originating also in Africa) are docile. For some reason, the traits for defensiveness appeared to be nonadaptive in these races, and not only did not "take hold," but were apparently bred out by natural selection (suggesting that there is a fitness cost to maintaining such defensiveness). -- Randy Oliver Grass Valley, CA www.ScientificBeekeeping.com *********************************************** 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