> A postscript: The small hive beetle that we now have here in the US is > Aethina tumida and is native to South Africa. There is another hive > beetle in South Africa which is larger, Hyplostoma fuligineus. I > wonder if this was Allen's Australian SHB? Apparently not. Apparently there are different varieties of the Aethina tumida and the ones in Aus come from a different region than those extant in the USA and are visably different. I understand that some Australians are aware of that. We weren't, at least on the beekeeper level. allen http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/