Editing Africanized bee (section)

== History ==
There are 29&nbsp;recognized [[subspecies]] of ''Apis mellifera'' based largely on geographic variations. All subspecies are cross-fertile. Geographic isolation led to numerous local adaptations. These adaptations include brood cycles synchronized with the bloom period of local flora, forming a winter cluster in colder climates, migratory swarming in Africa, enhanced (long-distance) foraging behavior in desert areas, and numerous other inherited traits.

The Africanized honey bees in the [[Western Hemisphere]] are descended from hives operated by [[biologist]] [[Warwick Estevam Kerr|Warwick E. Kerr]], who had interbred honey bees from Europe and [[southern Africa]]. Kerr was attempting to breed a strain of bees that would produce more honey in [[Tropics|tropical]] conditions than the European strain of honey bee then in use throughout [[North America|North]], [[Central America|Central]] and [[South America]]. The hives containing this particular African subspecies were housed at an [[apiary]] near [[Rio Claro, São Paulo|Rio Claro]], [[São Paulo (state)|São Paulo]], in the southeast of [[Brazil]], and were noted to be especially defensive. These hives had been fitted with special excluder screens (called [[queen excluder]]s) to prevent the larger queen bees and drones from getting out and mating with the local population of European bees. According to Kerr, in October&nbsp;1957 a visiting [[beekeeper]], noticing that the queen excluders were interfering with the worker bees' movement, removed them, resulting in the accidental release of 26&nbsp;[[Tanganyika (territory)|Tanganyika]]n swarms of ''A. m. scutellata''.{{citation needed|date=May 2025}} Following this accidental release, the Africanized honey bee swarms spread out and crossbred with local European honey bee colonies.

The descendants of these colonies have since spread throughout the Americas, moving through the [[Amazon basin]] in the 1970s, crossing into Central America in 1982, and reaching Mexico in 1985.<ref>{{cite book |title=Killer bees: The Africanized honey bee in the Americas |url=https://archive.org/details/killerbeesafrica00wins |url-access=registration |author=Winston, M. L. |publisher=Harvard University Press |year=1992|isbn=9780674503526 }}</ref> Because their movement through these regions was rapid and largely unassisted by humans, Africanized honey bees have earned the reputation of being a notorious [[invasive species]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/bees/ahb.htm |title=Africanized Honey Bee |publisher=University of Florida |department=Entomology & Nematology Department |access-date=2018-06-29 |df=dmy-all}}</ref> The prospect of killer bees arriving in the United States caused a media sensation in the late 1970s, inspired several horror movies,<ref>{{cite web |url=http://sfyl.ifas.ufl.edu/natural-resources/africanized-honey-bees/ |title=Africanized Honey Bees |publisher=University of Florida |department=[[Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences]] (IFAS) Extension |access-date=2018-06-29}}</ref> and sparked debate about the wisdom of humans altering entire ecosystems.

The first Africanized honey bees in the U.S. were discovered in 1985 at an oil field in the [[San Joaquin Valley]] of California. Bee experts theorized the colony had not traveled overland but instead "arrived hidden in a load of oil-drilling pipe shipped from South America."<ref>{{cite news |last=Le&nbsp;Page |first=Andrew |title=San Diego officials setting traps for expected arrival of 'killer bees' |url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1989-05-10-mn-2787-story.html |newspaper=Los Angeles Times |date=10 May 1989}}</ref> The first permanent colonies arrived in [[Texas]] from Mexico in 1990.<ref name="Valley-Central-Richard-Moore" /> In the [[Pima County, Arizona|Tucson region]] of Arizona, a study of trapped swarms in 1994 found that only 15&nbsp;percent had been Africanized; this number had grown to 90&nbsp;percent by 1997.<ref>{{cite journal|url=http://apisenterprises.com/papers_htm/Misc/AHB%20in%20the%20Americas.htm |title= The Africanized Honey Bee in the Americas: A Biological Revolution with Human Cultural Implications |journal=American Bee Journal |year=2006 |author=Sanford, Malcolm T.}}</ref>