> A postscript: The small hive beetle that we now have here in the US is
> Aethina tumida and is native to South Africa. There is another hive
> beetle in South Africa which is larger, Hyplostoma fuligineus. I
> wonder if this was Allen's Australian SHB?
Apparently not.
Apparently there are different varieties of the Aethina tumida and the
ones in Aus come from a different region than those extant in the USA
and are visably different. I understand that some Australians are aware
of that. We weren't, at least on the beekeeper level.
allen
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/