Subject: no subject (file transmission)

From: [email-masked] (Andy Nachbaur)
Date: Tue, 3 Jan 1995 15:30:00 GMT

This message was from Dr Pamela Munn <[email-masked]> to Multiple recipi

originally in conference LM-BEE-ListB on WILDBEES (WILD BEE'S BBS)
and was forwarded to you by ANDY NACHBAUR
----------------------------------------
Date:         Tue, 3 Jan 1995 11:56:22 +0000
From: Dr Pamela Munn <[email-masked]>
Subject:      no subject (file transmission)
To: Multiple recipients of list BEE-L <[email-masked]>

=========================================

B-MAIL

A monthly newsletter on issues and events in the bee world, provided
by IBRA, the world information service for bee science and beekeeping.

**Jan 1995**

=========================================
NATIVE HONEY BEE RACES

For many beekeepers in Europe the bee they want to keep is the one
originally found in their area (before human-assisted movements, at
least) and there are a number of groups devoted to conservation of
Apis mellifera mellifera, the dark European bee.

Here in the UK the British Isles Bee Breeders' Association (BIBBA) is
very active in this field, producing publications and videos and running
training courses and conferences.  BIBBA has been in operation for 30
years and aims to conserve, restore, study, select and improve the
'native and near native honey bees of Britain and Ireland'.

Actually they are primarily in favour of 'pure race breeding', as they
blame imports of foreign bees for the production of 'mongrel' bee
colonies with undesirable characteristics.  They then go on to say that
A. m. mellifera is the bee most suited to the British climate, it still
exists in a pure state, and can be distinguished from 'mongrel' bees
and other races.  Their current programme involves the formation of
local groups to find, select and breed these native bees.

Other groups working to propagate A. m. mellifera exist in Austria,
Brittany (France), Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland.

The Norwegian group has recently launched a publicity campaign,
complete with a very attractive poster, calling for action.  "We fear
that time is running out for the black European bee.  Most geographical
sub-races are already lost, and the rest are too few or might be
affected by other races.  In Scandinavia we don't even know what we
have, related to silvarum, lehzeni, or if it can be described as a special
Nordic branch".  They are calling for letters to be written to the
Norwegian minister of agriculture, and are holding a conference on the
Norwegian black bee area project on 8-9 September 1995.

In Germany a group was formed in November to promote conservation
of the black bee: the Gemeinschaft zum Erhalt der Dunklen Biene
(GEDB), or community for the conservation of the dark European bee,
and plans to work for its reintroduction, improvement and spread.  Of
course such an idea is controversial in Germany.  The well-coordinated
national bee breeding programme is based on propagation of Carniolan
bees, and even at the inaugural meeting of GEDB a representative of
the German Beekeepers' Association (DIB) spoke against the
(re)introduction of dark bees.

The Carniolan breeding programme in Germany is based on the use of
isolated mating apiaries and morphometrics to check racial 'purity',
though the problems inherent in this approach were highlighted by
Robin Moritz in his paper 'The limitations of biometric control on pure
race breeding in Apis mellifera' (Journal of Apicultural Research 30(2):
54-59 (1991), with subsequent discussion by F Ruttner and Dr Moritz
on pp113-115).

New techniques can give us new insights into the concept of honey
bee 'races'.  Data on the frequencies of enzyme electromorphs and
results of mitochondrial DNA restriction mapping can be used to
confirm, or dispute, the indications from morphometric analysis.  This
has been done, for instance, for the 'pure' population of Apis mellifera
ligustica in the honey bee sanctuary of Kangaroo Island in South
Australia (Oldroyd et al., Journal of Apicultural Research 31: 141-148
(1992)).  The subject is discussed further in 'New approaches to honey
bee taxonomy' by Ben Oldroyd (Bee World 74(3): 105-107 (1993)).

Contacts:

Brittany: Association Abeille-Noire Bretonne, Kerchere, F-29242,
France.

Germany: Secretary, GEDB, Ostlandstrasse 1, D-24247 Mielkendorf,
Germany.

Norway: Nils j Drivdal, Prosjekleder, Reinavlsomradet for Ded Brune Bia,
Lovikgt 13, 4400 Flekkefjord, Norway.

UK: Albert Knight, BIBBA Secretary, 11 Thomson Drive, Codnor, DE4
9RU, UK.

CONSERVING EUROPE'S BEES

The programme for this important meeting is looking really good, and
we expect a good attendance from throughout Europe and further
afield.  For your convenience the second announcement and booking
form is included at the end of this edition of B.mail.

COMPARATIVE FORAGING STRATEGIES IN SOLITARY AND SOCIAL
BEES

This meeting was featured in the last edition of B.mail, and full details
are now available from form Dr Robin Wootton, University of Exeter,
Hatherly Laboratories, Prince of Wales Road, Exeter EX4 4PS.  Phone
(+44) 1392-263753, fax 1392-263700, e.mail
[email-masked].

The provisional programme includes papers on:
Influence of pollen viability on foraging behaviour in bumble bees.
Effect of bee foraging strategies on gene flow in white clover.
Foraging responses to sexual harassment in a solitary bee.
Foraging of an anthophorid in the arid Sinai mountains.
Physiological constraints on foraging in solitary and social bees.
Limitations to flight performance in bumble bees.
The use of stable isotopes to determine energetic costs of freely
foraging bees.
Bombus vs. Apis: a comparison of foraging behaviour on oilseed rape.
Comparison of honey bees and bumble bees foraging on borage.
Foraging by Apis and Bombus on raspberries.

WAXING LYRICAL ON INTERNET

As historic moments go, according to the New York Times, this one
was closer to 'Watson, come here!' than to another Saturday night at
the movies.  The first movie to be transmitted on Internet was 'Wax: or
the discovery of television among the bees', an 85-minute cult piece
about a beekeeper who ends up being kept by his bees.  Reviews of
this 'surreal landscape imagined by a cyberpunk novelist' range from 'A
witty, psychedelic cult favourite' through the neutral 'Like no film
you've ever seen' to the less than complimentary 'Authentically
peculiar'.

The event itself, though, was described as 'The future of SF film, if not
of cinema'.  In this case output from an ordinary video player was fed
into the producer's computer, converted to digital form and pushed
straight out to Internet.  No doubt it's but a foretaste of a huge number
of simultaneous video channels but remember, bees did it first.

Andrew Matheson
Director

NOW HERE IS THE SECOND ANNOUNCEMENT AND BOOKING FORM
FOR CONSERVING EUROPE'S BEES

(Continued to next message)