The official story goes:

> The varroa mite was first described as Varroa jacobsoni by Oudemans (1904) from Java on Apis cerana. However, Anderson and Trueman (2000), after studying mtDNA Co-I gene sequences and morphological characters of many populations of V. jacobsoni from around the world split it into two species. Varroa jacobsoni infests Apis cerana in the Malaysia-Indonesia region. Varroa destructor Anderson & Trueman, 2000 infests its natural host A. cerana on mainland Asia and also A. mellifera L. worldwide (Zhang 2000). In 1951, varroa mite was found in Singapore. In 1962-63, the mite was found on Apis m. mellifera in Hong Kong and the Philippines (Delfinado 1963) and spread rapidly from there. 

> Adaption to a new host (Apis m. mellifera), the importation of queen bees from infested areas, and the movement of infested colonies of bees for pollination led to the rapid spread of this mite. Following the find of a single varroa mite in Maryland in 1979, the Division of Plant Industry and H.L. Cromroy, University of Florida, made an inspection of Florida bees in 1984. The varroa mite was not found at that time, but in 1987 it was detected in Wisconsin and Florida. It remains unknown how or when the varroa mite was introduced into the continental U.S.A.

[ If anyone has anything to add to that, I certainly would like to hear it. Otherwise, why talk about some "untold story"? Give us a break! ]

Peter Loring Borst 
Ithaca, NY  USA 
+42.347, -76.502

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