>For a long time that is how beekeepers were told that Varroa j. "jumped" from their original target (Apis c.) to the European honeybee (Apis m.). Now it's discovered that it's not Varroa j. causing all our problems, it's Varroa d.!  So I'm wondering where in this tale did Varroa d. actually come on board?  Is it a similar story (Varroa d. got picked up by migratory beekeepers in their journeys) or was there some sort of mutation of Varroa j. that begat Varroa d., or what?  My recollection is that Varroa d. had roots in Korea vs. SE Asia, but I'm admittedly vague on this.  Was the origin of the species ever updated to reflect the discovery of Varroa d. or was that piece of the lie just glossed over.  Does anyone really know?

PB:
Well, whether destructor is a separate species or not, depends on the taxonomists. Taxonomists fall into the categories of "lumpers" and "splitters". Nature does not separate species all that neatly for us. However, the following recent publication shows that it is still thought that varroa moved from cerana to mellifera. This may have happened long enough before it was noticed to give varroa time to develop a new species that is host specific, much as different species of fleas are associated with cats, dogs, etc.

>Title: Parasite-host interactions between the Varroa mite and the honey bee - A contribution to sustainable Varroa control Author:J.N.M. Calis Date: 26 June, 2001
>
>Varroa destructor (Anderson & Trueman, 2000), is the most important pest of European races of the Western honey bee, Apis mellifera L., weakening bees and vectoring bee diseases (Matheson, 1993). Over the past decades it has spread all over the world and control measures are required to maintain healthy honey bee colonies.
>
>Originally, this mite only occurred in colonies of the Eastern honey bee, Apis cerana Fabr., in Asia. Varroa destructor was formerly known as V. jacobsoni Oud. (Anderson & Trueman, 2000). The Varroa mite was described in 1904 by Oudemans as a parasite of Eastern honey bees in Indonesia. Although the actual damage inflicted by the mite to the Eastern honey bee has never been determined, the Varroa mite is not considered to be a problem in colonies of its original host. However, Varroa turned into a serious pest of Western honey bees when beekeepers moved the Western honey bee into the area of distribution of the Eastern honey bee. The mite appeared to be a harmful parasite on its new host, but before this was realised it had already spread over the world through shipments of colonies and queens (De Jong et al., 1982; Matheson, 1993).
>
>http://www.agralin.nl/wda/abstracts/ab3010.html

An older article on the origins states:

>Varroa jacobsoni was first detected in the United States in 1987 and thought to be of South American origin based on mite morphology. Since then tremendous honey bee colony mortality has been reported nationwide despite efforts of controlling these parasites. High colony losses were also recorded in Europe. In contrast, no colony mortality was reported in South America even without treatment. Using RAPD analysis, we established that mites from the United States were genetically the same as those mites from eastern Russia and Europe, and not South American mites. This observation suggests that varroa common in the United States are not from South America but most likely from eastern Russia via Europe. These genetic differences may correlate with the varied levels of virulence of varroa mites on their bee hosts.
>
>http://www.nal.usda.gov/ttic/tektran/data/000007/58/0000075870.html


An interesting side note is that mellifera may have lived close to cerana in the vicinity of Kazakhstan for thousands of years.

>The honey bees of the native apple forests of central Asia remained unknown and undescribed until the summer of 1999 when Dr. Tom Unruh of the USDA Wapato lab and I traveled to the region and made an extensive collection of honey bees from Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Concentrating our search for bees to populations at higher elevations, we identified two locations within the Tien Shan Mountain range where a locally adapted type seemed to predominate. Beekeepers in these areas said these bees were highly adapted to the local cold winters and were able to survive better than other bees imported from Russia, Ukraine and Carpathia, several thousand kilometers to the west.
>
>http://entomology.wsu.edu/apis/apinotes.html


pb