Bill wrote

> We had a discussion on this finding some time back and one of the
> guesses was that we were dealing with Varroa J vrs D. So you can have
> good varroa control, as long as it is varroa j. That might be the case
> in SA.

As I recall the discussion it was that the Varroa destructor may have been
the Japanese haplotype which it has been speculated may not be as bad as the
Korean haplotype.  This was certainly the theory for South America.

Varroa jacobsoni only reproduces on Apis cerana and does not reproduce on
Apis mellifera.  The latest work by Dr. Denis Anderson has found that there
are different types of VJ.  They are host specific to different types of AC.
So much in fact that in the past we had to find the mite to see what it was.
Now we can DNA the bee and say which type of VJ it is or if it is VD that
will be found with the bees.

The VD will not reproduce on the AC that hosts VJ and vice versa.

As far as I know, VD does well on Apis mellifera in the tropical areas of
Asia.  However, it is the Tropilaelaps clareae that does more damage than
the VD.  In Papua New Guinea where there is only VJ, the TC did all the
killing of hives but it cannot reproduce on AC.  So after the wave of TC
went through the highlands of PNG, they were able to restock with AM and not
have any problems as the TC had gone.

Very interesting work.

Trevor Weatherhead
AUSTRALIA