Another sub-menu problem

I’m trying to remove all colouring from the top menu parent layer, but still get the parent menu items changing background colour on mouseover

the css I have used so far is this

.js .main-nav, .menu, .current-menu-item {
background-color: #ffffff;
background-image: none;
margin: 0 auto;
}

.menu a:hover, ul.menu>li:hover, .menu a:active, ul.menu>li:active, .menu a:selection, ul.menu>li:selection {
color:#000;
border-left:0px;
background-color: #ffffff;
background-image: none;
margin: 0 auto;
text-shadow:none;
}