Population Change and Control of Africanized Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in the Panama Canal Area

Rapid morphological changes in populations of hybrids between Africanized and European honey bees

“…Other studies have also reported rapid changes in bee morphology at the beginning of the Africanization process at other sites (Boreham and Roubik, 1987;Quezada-Euán and Medina, 1998). Aside from ecological reasons for such dominance, through competitive advantages of Africanized bees (Gonçalves et al, 1991;De Jong, 1996), there appears to be genetic dominance, since based on our morphometric findings the F 1 generation is clearly closer to the African parental (Table 1, Figure 3).…”

“…Our findings help to explain the rapid changes in the morphology of bees in European colonies in recently colonized areas (Boreham and Roubik, 1987;Quezada-Euán and Paxton, 1999) and also provide evidence for dominance and epistatic action of African alleles of the genes responsible for wing vein positioning.…”

Hybrid status of honey bee populations near the historic origin of Africanization in Brazil

“…When considered in the context of the current geographical range of bees with African-derived genetic characteristics, the heterogeneous nature of new world Africanized honey bee populations is not an unexpected result, although the phenomenon of Africanization and the "Africanized" population has sometimes been more narrowly defined (Hall, 1990). As the geographic range of the Africanized honey bee has expanded, the most recently occupied regions undergo a transition to Africanization over a period of at least several years (Boreham and Roubik, 1987;Taylor, 1988;Rinderer et al, 1991 (Moritz and Meusel, 1991). A large-scale allozyme study also revealed that populations of this region express significant levels of European-derived introgression, although morphometrically they are quite "African" (Lobo et al, 1989).…”

Hybridization between European and Africanized honeybees (Apis mellifera L.) in tropical Yucatan, Mexico. I. Morphometric changes in feral and managed colonies

“…The resulting offspring, called Africanized honeybees, started a rapid spread throughout the Neotropics rapidly displacing European honeybees from apiaries and establishing feral populations [25]. Africanized [3,23,31]. More-over, studies on the Africanization process have mainly followed changes of either managed or feral colonies separately.…”