Hoping to help steer the discussion away from whether or not the list should be split, I would like to pose a question. As a beekeeper and an academic--an historian with an interest in history of science and history of biology--I was wondering the other day where the present problem we experience in the USA with mites came from. It seems to me that it must be a problem related evolution and ecology; most of the other bee diseases, such as the foulbroods, seem to have been such. I also know that one of the primary foci for the eventual solution of the problem is evolutionary in principle--the development of more resistant bees. But I was away from beekeeping during the years that the problems with the mites emerged, and so only came back into it knowing that they were serious problems, but not really aware of where they had come from. Has anyone written on this? Can anyone recommend a good article or two? Thanks. James Cassidy Saint Anselm College [log in to unmask]