64
 possible that a variant bearing the 1.8kb Mspl fragment detected in South

 African bees may have originated from prior importation of bees to South Africa

 from Europe or by way of North America (Fletcher 1973, 1978).

 The west European origin of the 1.8kb fragment-bearing Mspl variants

 (M300 group) in southern Mexico and Honduras was confirmed by the

 identification of the associated Ddel variants at locus 178 (Table 6, Figure 11).

 In South African drones the Mspl M303 and M304 variants were associated

 with the Ddel variants D405 and D503, respectively. In neotropical drones,

 M301 was identified as the Mspl variant with the 1.8kb fragment and was

 associated with Ddel variants that were the same as (D101, D102, D201,

 D301) or similar to (D202, D203, D305) Ddel variants identified in USA drones

 and inferred from Ddel fragments detected in A. m. mellifera workers. Among

 the M300 group variants, the detection of only M301 and M302 in Honduras

 demonstrates that A. m. mellifera ancestry persists in feral colonies. Ddel

 D200 variants detected with M301 in Honduras may indicate A. m. mellifera

 ancestry, but fragment comigration prohibited the detection of these Ddel

 variants in A. m. mellifera workers. There was no evidence for Ddel variants

 D405 or D503 in A. m. mellifera or in the M300-containing samples in the

 neotropics. The absence of variants M303 and M304 in the New World may

 be due to sampling error; these variants may not have been present in the A.

m. scutellata queens imported, or were present at a low frequency not detected

in this study.