THE RACES OF HONEY BEES AND THEIR CHARACTERISTICS 



Ray Hutson, B.Sc. 

 Assistant Entomologist, New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station 



Each race of honey bee has arisen in response to the working of the 

 same natural laws that have given races of every living thing. Isolation 

 by natural barriers, mountains, seas and deserts by forcing in and in 

 breeding and natural selection is the predominating c;iusal agent in 

 the origin of races. Such natural segregation gave rise to the different 

 kinds of cattle in different parts of the world to quote a familiar ex- 

 ample. In the last few thousand years man has speeded up nature to 

 produce domestic cattle from wild cattle. 



The definitions of races and of characteristics are pretty thoroughly 

 tangled up. A characteristic is a trait or a structure peculiar to a 

 group of individuals. A group possessing certain characteristics is called 

 a race. 



The origin of the races of honey bees can be traced in the same way 

 as the origin of races of every animal. Wherever a given race of 

 honey bees is at home we find, on investigation, that its home is set 

 apart by impassible natural obsacles. This, of course, is true only of 

 the region to which it is indigenous and disregards man as a factor in 

 its dissemination. The nature of bees and their habits are practically 

 the same as they were thousands of years ago and it is only within the 

 past few hundred years, that man has learned to transport them to any 

 distance. 



The different races of bees are the Italians, Caucasians, Carniolans, 

 Germans, Cyprians, Syrians, Holy Land, Saharian and Chinese. These 

 races which are kept by man can all be located as having originated in 

 some region set apart from the rest of the world by mountains, seas or 

 deserts. 



The Italian Bee 



Italy, the home of the Italian bee. is set apart from the rest of Europe 

 by the Alps and is almost surrounded by the sea. The bees which were 

 brought to that country thousands of years ago have been kept in that 

 locality all the time. Their yellow bands, comparative gentleness, house 

 cleaning ability and comparatively great disease resistance have been 

 built up and fixed by the principles of the survival of the fittest as 

 gauged by Italian conditions. The poor cappings attributed to this race 

 have been fostered in the same way by the Italian climate as has their 

 comparative freedom from burr and brace combs and the carrying in of 

 large quantities of propolis. Latterly, since importation to America, the 

 Italian has been modified by dilutions of alien blood and undue at- 

 tention to the single characteristic of color. This last feature is a 

 very good example of how man can speed up natural processes in the 

 development of a race by selection and hybridization. 



The Caucasian lice 



The Caucasian bees originated in a, region bounded on all sides by 

 barriers which the bees within the enclosed region were unable to 

 pass; sea on two sides, mountains on one side and desert on the other. 



cS 



