Aaron Morris gave an outline of this subject last Friday.  Here are a few
details as I understand them.
 
Eva Crane wrote an account of this in Bee World 59(4): 164-167 (1978) under
the title 'The Varroa mite'.  To quote: "Professor V V Alpatov has provided
me with some details, and the story seems to be as follows.  Apis cerana
bees were indigenous in the Far East of the USSR, living wild in the
forests of Ussuriyisk.  Peasants who migrated there from European Russia in
the last century tried to keep these bees in log hives, but they had
difficulties and lost many colonies through swarming.  These beees, like
Apis cerana in much of its habitat, were parasitized by Varroa.  This seems
a likely fate for any European bees taken into cerana territory.
 
"In more recent years, there have been many reports of high honey yields in
the Far Eastern Province, which led some beekeepers in European USSR to
believe that the bees there must be of a very good strain, although the
high yields are in fact due to excellent flows from limes (Tilia) and other
plants.  Queens of these 'honey-getting' strains were purchased from the
Far East for apiaries in European USSR, and with these queens came Varroa
as well.  The next European country to find the mites was Bulgaria,
presumably introduced with queens imported from USSR."
 
In talking with Dr Crane about this recently, she told me that this story
was linked in time with the completion of the trans-Siberian railway.
There will no doubt be more details in her forthcoming book on the history
of bees and mankind.
 
I recently wrote an article tracing the first reports of varroa in
countries around the world (which is not exactly the same as its spread,
though the two are closely related).  'First documented findings of Varroa
jacobsoni outside its presumed natural range.  Apiacta 30(1): 1-8 (1995)'.
 
Andrew
 
--
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* From Andrew Matheson, Director, International Bee Research Association *
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