Michael Hardy's newspaper piece on declines in feral honey bee populations
with the advent of tracheal and varroa mites contains one major error.
There is no indication that the two mites are native to South America, as
Hardy reports. Varroa is native to subtropical and tropical Asia where
its original host was the eastern honey bee, Apis cerana; problems with
tracheal mite first were reported from the Isle of Wight in England,
indicating that this species may be native to Europe.
 
With regard to another statement made in the article, apiculture refers
more to the practice of beekeeping than to the study of bees. The term
"mellitology" occasionally has been applied to the study of bees.
 
Tom Culliney
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