Robin Said:

>  Bees
> have survived pests and parasites for millions of years because pest and
> host developed a balanced relationship - vaooa is such a problem because
man
> forced the pace by moving colonies and allowing a sudden jump across the
> species , not gradual introduction.

Given the pace at which A. Mellifera has succumbed to varroa, it would
appear that any, even "gradual" introduction, would still have been
catastrophic.  Has anyone found any A.M. colonies that are truly mite
resistant?

Apparently A. Cerana has some very specialized behavior that allow it to
deal with varroa.  Workers pierce the cappings of drone cells, "inspecting"
them for varroa contamination, discarding those infected.  Other varroa
related mechanisms also seem to be in place, allowing A.C. workers to
communicate in ways A.M. cannot.

> So Russian bees sound so interesting -
> we know nothing of them in UK I think - an early post in the archive
> indicated they came from the far east , presumably from an area that
borders
> A cerana and so they have had the opportunity to develop a balanced
> relationship with varooa over a long time.

We should remember that the fossil record is chock full of extinct species
which failed, due to a number of possible causes.  Time alone is not
necessarily a guarantee of success for a given species.

Regards,

Todd.

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