I was also at that Talk by Jack hassett and Dr Jane McCormack, I also remember the slide with a family tree of Apis millifera and the piece about the markers, There is still no confirmation of an indiginious Native Honey bee she said things were looking good. There are lots of different bees around if and when they do confirm there is such a thing how to protect it when queens are out mateing, "Non-native subspecies of honeybees have been introduced and propagated, so that native black honeybee (Apis mellifera mellifera) populations lost their identity by gene-flow or went extinct. " I think it would be great if a population existed and could be preserved but you would have to be sceptical. As a matter of intrest I have dark coloured Honey bees and have asked Jack to test them as I recieved them from a breeder who told me they were native?? they are dark in colour in an urban area with lots of mongrols. Did I not read somewhere that the germans tried to replace Apis milifera millifera with Apis carnica. http://www.ibrabee.org.uk/component/...apis-mellifera. I will have to check my notes from the talk.
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