Remarkable uniformity in the densities of feral honey bee Apis mellifera Linnaeus, 1758 (Hymenoptera: Apidae) colonies in South Eastern Australia

Abstract

It is often assumed that the density of feral honey bee colonies in Australia is sufficient to provide adequate pollination services to the many agricultural crops that require pollination. In contrast, there is concern that the density of feral colonies is sufficiently high to have inimical effects on Australian biota. For both these reasons, it is desirable to have robust estimates of the density of feral honey bee colonies in Australian landscapes. In this study, we mated four to five queens with wild drones at disturbed and undisturbed sites in three of the major ecosystems in Victoria Australia and examined the paternities of worker offspring to estimate the density of feral colonies wi..