I would have thought that the few hives of killer bees that were released in South America so many years ago would have been genetically diluted out by the non-african populations. Instead I’m hearing of “normal” hives being africanized by an influx of african bees.
Don’t be telling me that African bee genes are dominant over european or native bees and that’s why they have increased in number…My Hardy-Weinberg law tells me genetic frequency is irrelevant to dominance or recessiveness.
However, Hardy-Weinberg has some “assumptions” that negate it…random mating, no mutations, no selection etc.
Are the africanized genetics increasing in number because these bees are better suited for the environment, or some other reason?
am I clear in my question?
I have no idea what it brings into play, but keep in mind that the overwhelming majority of bees do not reproduce…only queens and drones. A given hive has essentially NO genetic diversity. If for some reason africanized queens only accept africanized drones, then there is no chance of diluting the african genes.
African Queens are faster, and more aggressive than Europeanized Queens. This is also true of African drones. In places where both types of bees share an environment, it is more likely that one of any successful pair will be African. Random is even less of a factor at the verges of the Africanized population, since Africans move farther in mating flights (both queens and drones) and are therefore are more likely to overlap the other subspecies range than the converse.
This is incorrect. The African honeybees introduced to Brazil were a subspecies of the same species Apis mellifera that occurred in Europe and which was introduced into the US several centuries ago. So called “Africanized” honeybees, also known as “killer bees,” are hybrids of these subspecies. Note that honeybees are not native to the Americas.
The primary assumption violated here is that there is no selection. As Triskadecamus indicates, African strains have advantages in propagating themselves. Also, as a tropical subspecies, they were probably better adpated to tropical conditions that the European bees that previously occurred in South and Central America.
You’re right. :smack: I looked it up in Wikipedia (where else?) to brush up.
I remember now seeing something on TV about how the different timetables affect it. When a queen emerges, she seeks out the rivals and kills them before they can emerge. IIRC African queens don’t need as long to mature. They always emerge before European ones, so they dominate.
I recall hearing a news account some years back that the Africanized bees were being dilluted. No idea if that story was accurate or what the rate of dillution might be. IIRC, the sting of Africanized bees is no worse than that of an normal honey bee, the “killer” aspect comes from the fact that Africanized bees tend to attack in much larger numbers than ordinary bees.
Of course, with Colony Collapse Disorder, we may not care what kind of bees we have, so long as we have them.
If I clearly get your question, AHB’s are increasing in number because they produce more queen cells when preparing to swarm and as noted above travel a greater distance during swarming.
Beekeepers are attempting dilution, both on private and Federal levels.
Whether the AHB can survive overwintering, CCD, varroa/tracheal mites, foul brood or other afflictions likely won’t be known until they inevitably reach northern climes.