>I read in the latest Bees for Development Journal (always first with the

> news!) that there is a newly recorded parasitic fly of honeybees in South
> East  Asia.  The scientific name is Physocephala paralleliventris.
>

Don't know about "first"--the paper was presented in 2004.  Since then, I
recall another paper that detailed a change in behavior of the infected bees
to stay cooler, so as to retard the development of the fly larvae.

>Thinking about it, although so far found only in tropical countries, the
fly with this sort of behavior could continue just as well in more temperate
regions

This is the sort of constant risk we take when we ship live bees from
continent (or island) to continent.  I know that this view is unpopular with
Martin, but it is a simple fact.

Randy Oliver

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