The african Honey Bee

This book is the first review of the scientific literature on the Africanized honey bee. The African subspecies Apis mellifera scutellata (formerly adansonii) was introduced into South America in 1956 with the intent of cross-breeding it with other subspecies of bees already present in Brazil to obtain a honey bee better adapted to tropical conditions. Shortly after its introduction, some of the African stock became established in the feral population around Sao Paulo, Brazil, and spread rapidly through Brazil. It has since migrated through most of the neotropics, displacing and/or hybridizing with the previously imported subspecies of honey bees. Africanized bees have been stereotype d as having high rates of swarming and absconding, rapid colony growth, and fierce defensivebehavior. As they have spread through the neotropics they have interacted with the human population, disrupting apiculture and urban activities when high levels of defensive behavior are expressed.

Table of Contents:
1 Introduction /Marla Spivak, David J. C. Fletcher, and Michael D. Breed -- PART ONE -- SYSTEMATICS AND IDENTIFICATION -- 2 Systematics and Identification of Africanized Honey Bees /Howell V. Daly -- 3 Genetic Characterization of Honey Bees Through DNA Analysis /H. Glenn Hall -- PART TWO -- THE SPREAD OF AFRICANIZED BEES AND THE AFRICANIZATION PROCESS -- 4 Interdependence of Genetics and Ecology in a Solution to the African Bee Problem /David J.C. Fletcher -- 5 The Processes of Africanization /Thomas E. Rinderer and Richard L. Hellmich II -- 6 Africanized Bees: Natural Selection for Colonizing Ability /Francis L. W. Ratnieks -- 7 The Africanization Process in Costa Rica /Marla Spivak -- 8 Honey Bee Genetics and Breeding /Robert E. Page, Jr., and Warwick E. Kerr -- 9 Continuing Commercial Queen Production After the Arrival of Africanized Honey Bees /Richard L. Hellmich II -- PART THREE -- POPULATION BIOLOGY, ECOLOGY, AND DISEASES -- 10 The Inside Story: Internal Colony Dynamics of Africanized Bees /Mark L. Winston -- 11 Population Biology of the Africanized Honey Bee /Gard W. Otis -- 12 Foraging Behavior and Honey Production /Thomas E. Rinderer and Anita M. Collins -- 13 Aspects of Africanized Honey Bee Ecology in Tropical America /David W. Roubik -- 14 Bee Diseases, Parasites, and Pests /H. Shimanuki, D. A. Knox, and David De long -- PART FOUR -- DEFENSIVE BEHAVIOR -- 15 Defensive Behavior /Michael D. Breed -- 16 Genetics of Defensive Behavior I /Anita M. Collins and Thomas E. Rinderer -- 17 Genetics of Defensive Behavior II /Antonio Carlos Stort and Lionel Segui Gon~alves -- PART FIVE -- BEEKEEPING IN SOUTH AMERICA -- 18 Beekeeping in Brazil /Lionel Segui Gon~alves, Antonio Carlos Start, and David De long -- 19 The Africanized Honey Bee in Peru /Robert B. Kent -- 20 Beekeeping in Venezuela, Richard L. Hellmich II and Thomas E. Rinderer -- Author Index -- Subject Index.

About the Author :
Robert K. Vander Meer is a research chemist with the USDA/ARS. Michael D. Breed is professor of environmental population and organismic biology at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Mark L. Winston is professor of biological sciences at Simon Fraser University. Karl E. Espelie is professor of entomology at the University of Georgia at Athens.