APPENDIX 



PREPARED STATEMENT OF DR. DEWEY M. CARON 



It is with great pleasure that I offer these views on the Africanized bee, an intro- 

 duced non-indigenous alien insect species now occupying three U.S. States. I began 

 studying this bee in 1982 as it invaded Panama and am continuing mv studies to 

 the present time. As president of the Eastern Branch, Entomological Society of 

 America and Board Chairman of the Eastern Apicultural Society, as well as an ac- 

 tive research/extension/teaching professor in the field of Entomology and Apiculture, 

 I am fully prepared to assist in your consideration of this important legislation. 



The population of this ahen honey bee commonly called African or Africanized by 

 my colfea^es, or as killer bee by some of the general public and media, represents 

 a contradiction and a challenge for those of us that conduct research and seek to 

 extend scientific knowledge to the public^ress and to our distinguished elected offi- 

 cials at local. State and national levels. Tnis bee, whatever we may call it, is a con- 

 tradiction in its biology and behavior, aspects many eminent scientists have inves- 

 tigated the past 20+ years. It is also a contradiction for the media, for the general 

 public and a contradiction to you and your colleagues in elected and non-elected gov- 

 ernmental positions that must develop policies to deal with it. Let me provide some 

 background and then express my views, as scientist and extension entomologist, 

 about how public policy might interface with Africanized honey bees. 



Some background on Africanized bees 



I will refer to this honey bee as Africanized. It is not native to the U.S. but then 

 no species of honey bee is. The Africanized bee is a population that is highly vari- 

 able. The population originated from queens carried from Eastern Africa, where it 

 is recognized as a distinct geographical race with certain behavioral and morphologi- 

 cal characteristics, to southern Brazil. The intent of this iniportation into Brazil was 

 to improve the honey bees of the tropical area of that South American country. 

 Brazil, like the U.S., had earlier imported honey bees from temperate climates. This 

 worked fine in the U.S. with a pronounced seasonal temperature and day length 

 cycle but tropical areas have a different seasonality, primarily based on wet and dry 

 weather patterns. 



This race of bees from Africa was known for defensiveness and its migratory tend- 

 ency. It stings rapidly when disturbed and continues nest defense for a longer time 

 and distance at the homesite and it migrates or absconds when climate or food re- 

 sources become less favorable. Both features are not desirable for beekeeping or 

 management by beekeepers accustomed to the European bee races previously im- 

 ported into the Americas. 



The objective of the importation was to incorporate genetic material into the popu- 

 lation of bees in Brazil and to breed a bee more suited to the tropics. Before this 

 was accomplished, the bee accidentally escaped as bee swarms. Biology would tell 

 us that the genetic material of this import should have been hybridized out of exist- 

 ence as only a few bee colonies were being released into a much larger population 

 of honey bees not having the same gene pool. One of the contradictions of this bee 

 is that this didn't occur. 



Instead, the honey hse population of southern Brazil was changed over to a gene 

 pattern very similar to the bees carried to Brazil from Africa. Additionally, in con- 

 tradiction to what was expected, the population began to spread and with more 

 breeding it continued to convert more and more bees of temperate genetic character- 

 istics to what it was — it was after all a bee that through centuries of evolution was 

 well suited to the tropical season. The European race bees it was breeding with had 

 had only a couple of hundred years of adjustment to the American tropics. 



This population first drew the attention of U.S. scientists in the late 60s. It was 

 not investigated by U.S. scientists imtil a 1972 NSF sponsored tour of Brazil by a 



(69) 



