Italian bee

Distribution

Geography

• 1853 introduced to Germany
• 1854 introduced into the Poland by Dr. Jan Dzierżon
• 1859 introduced into the United Kingdom
• 1859 introduced to the United States
• 1862 introduced to Australia, on 9 December into Victoria aboard the steam ship Alhambra There is strong evidence that the subsequent Italian virgin queens hybridised with the English 'black' bee previously imported (source: Barrett, P. "The Immigrant Bees, 1788 to 1898", Vol. IV). Wilhelm Abram brought several queens from Italy to Sydney in December 1880 but it's probable they reached New South Wales through other hands earlier on.
• 1866 introduced to Russian Empire
• 1880 introduced to New Zealand
• 1884 (Easter) introduced to Kangaroo Island in South Australia, sourced from Brisbane where they were previously imported in 1880 from Italy by Chas. Fullwood. Jas. Carroll received a hive of Italian bees in Brisbane, Queensland, in 1877 when Angus Mackay accompanied a hive aboard the City of New York, packaged by Harbison in California. After a week's stopover in Sydney, the bees arrived in Brisbane. The government of the colony of South Australia passed legislation in 1885 intended to "encourage the culture of Ligurian Bees on Kangaroo Island." Honey from Kangaroo Island is marketed (in 2014) as being from the only pure Ligurian bees in the world.