Italian bee

Apis mellifera ligustica is the Italian bee which is a subspecies of the western honey bee ("Apis mellifera").
Origin.
The Italian honey bee is thought to originate from the continental part of Italy, south of the Alps, and north of Sicily. The subspecies may have survived the last Ice Age in Italy.
It is genetically a different subspecies than that from the Iberian peninsula and from Sicily. It is the most widely distributed of all honey bees, and has proven adaptable to most climates from subtropical to cool temperate, but it is less successful in humid tropical regions. Italian bees that originate from the Ligurian alps in northern Italy are often referred to as the Ligurian bee.
Italian bees, having been conditioned to the warmer climate of the central Mediterranean, are less able to cope with the "hard" winters and cool, wet springs of more northern latitudes. They do not form such tight winter clusters. More food has to be consumed to compensate for the greater heat loss from the loose cluster. The tendency to raise broods late in autumn also increases food consumption. The noted beekeeper, Thomas White Woodbury, first introduced the Italian bee to Britain in 1859 and regarded it as vastly superior to the Old British Black bee ("A. m. mellifera").
Characteristics.
Brother Adam, a bee breeder and developer of the Buckfast bee, characterized the Italian bee in his book "Breeding the Honeybee":
While the Italian bee has many strong points, among the "A.m. ligustica" it has a large number of weak points:
Foraging behavior.
"A. m. ligustica" are more concerned with nectar processing behaviors, honey storage, and adult maintenance over brood expansion when compared to the African honey bee, "A. m. scutellata".
Selective breeding.
Breeders of Italian bees, as well as other honey bee races, look for certain beneficial characteristics. Depending on the breeding goal, one or more of the following characteristics may be emphasized:
Source: George Imrie's pink pages