17 August 2019 | New Scientist | 41Even so, these extraordinary bees will be
vital in the future battle to strengthen global
bee populations. The next step is to use recent
discoveries about how their genome differs
from those of their African and European
ancestors to isolate the genes responsible for
aggression and mite resistance. That work is
already under way, and the researchers are very
excited at the possibility of uncovering the
complex genetics underpinning the bees’
rapid evolution. “By triangulating among
African, European and Puerto Rican bees, we
could uncover the genetic variants responsible
for docility and disease resistance,” says
geneticist Gene Robinson at the University of
Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, who, along with
his colleague Matt Hudson, is collaborating
with Avalos and Giray. Their work could prove
an enormous boon to beekeepers hoping to
use genetics to create more resilient bees.
Who knows what the next chapter of this
story will bring. But when the protagonist
is an insect that has transformed from a
killer to a potential saviour in the blink of an
evolutionary eye, anything seems possible. ❚called colony collapse disorder. The hybrids
spend far longer grooming themselves than
European honeybees, making them twice as
likely to dislodge the varroa mite, a parasite
that carries various pathogens and is a factor
in colony collapse. As a result, some see
Puerto Rico’s bees as a silver bullet that can
solve a problem that has plagued beekeepers
in the US and elsewhere for a decade.
“The prospect of importing the bees
is promising,” says Avalos. But it may not
be the solution. “The bees’ adaptability is
remarkable, but colony collapse emerged from
poor nutrition, pesticides, pests and pathogens.
They can handle one of these, but we don’t
know how they will handle the others. You
can adapt to a higher water level, but you’re
not going to grow gills.” Other entomologists
share his reservations. They include Marla
Spivak at the University of Minnesota, who
is breeding varieties of honeybees that are
better able to detect and remove pathogens
and mites. She thinks Puerto Rican bees
would struggle to cope with the intensive
agricultural systems, greater urbanisation
and high concentration of mites in the US.
“What makes Puerto Rico’s story amazing
is how they’ve found such a great way of
working with their bees,” she says. “The same
solution wouldn’t work everywhere. We want
multiple great solutions for multiple places.”Ben Turner is a writer based
in London. Follow him on
Twitter @usuallyjustbenHE
RMES
CONDENo wonder Puerto Rico’s beekeepers have
taken these insects to their heart, and nobody
more so than Conde. A lifelong apiarist,
following in the tradition of his grandmother,
he was also a police captain in the 1990s. He
was there when the emergency services were
being called out to exterminate killer bees, and
he was torn up by their fate. So, after retiring
in 2011, he established the Eastern Apiculture
Academy. Rather than teaching people about
honey production, its sole aim is to protect
Puerto Rico’s hybrid bees.
This explains Conde’s activities in the
weeks after Hurricane Maria. An estimated
90 per cent of the island’s bees were dead
and the remainder needed help – fast. “The
bees had lost so many of their homes, and
were so hungry that we were finding them
everywhere,” he says. “Bins, drink cans,
postboxes, dogs’ houses, dolls’ houses,
abandoned homes.” With Giray’s assistance,
Conde and 30 volunteers worked in shifts
around the clock to move colonies to safety.
“The most difficult were those hanging
from electrical cables, but fortunately I’m
a helicopter pilot,” says Conde. In total,
they rescued around 65 hives.
This brush with fate has brought
Puerto Rico’s bees to the attention of US
beekeepers, whose own hives of European
bees have been devastated by a phenomenon
A young apiarist
helps protect
Puerto Rico’s
hybrid bees, which
are both disease-
resistant and good
honey producersMANUEL
GIANNONI^ GUZMAN