> This information has been
> freely made available to all who have asked or read the reports.  If
> some taxonomic entomologist wants to give it a new name, I suppose it
> will depend whether that person is a lumper or splitter.

That is true.  I think this information was available, but was
overlooked or considered of minor import by some, compared to the
question of whether the beetle is widespread in Oz, whether it can be
located accurately and contained, the chance of it getting into
packages, and other such more pressing matters.  Whether it is a
significant factor, now that it appears fairly certain that the beetle
will show up somewhere, sometime, in some export package  is a good
question.

The confusion comes from the use of the word "variety",  I orginally
used this word in it's lay sense when reportiing Shannon Wooten's
comments at the ABF meeting.  As it happens, to biologists, the word
'variety' appears to have a technical meaning that is considerably more
specific than the meaning it has to non-biologists.  As I understand it
now, the correct word -- in the opinion of those studying the matter --
might have been 'strain'.

If my choice of words has caused confusion, I, of course apologise.  The
fact remains, however that the beetle in Oz is observedly different, and
all the differences are not completely known.  I have more comments on
this matter, and more, on the current page of my diary site, as well as
some info on the protocols Aus is offering to try to assure Canadians
about the beetle and the curent status of the proposed importation of
Australian packages this year.

Here is an excerpt from the recent comments of an Australian authority:
---
"Gene sequencing work has been done on the Australian strain of small
hive beetle. The work was done in the light of a US study on a large
sample (some 140) of strains there which showed that broadly, the USA
has two source strains of small hive beetle. The sequence found here was
dissimilar to the US strains but identical to a strain found in Durban,
South Africa, which had previously been characterised. For that reason,
we suspect that the Australian beetle originated from southern Africa
somewhere. These differences are are of limited to the genetic
sequences. We are aware of some misinformed discussion that the beetle
in Australia is "a different variety" from the US beetle but this is not
true. We do not have sufficient information to determine whether the
Australian strain is more or less damaging than the US strains. The
amount of damage from small hive beetle seen here seems to be less than
that reported in Florida in recent times but it is too early to confirm!
this subjective observation..."
---
These matters can be very difficult to decide.  It is extremely hard to
be objective, since all the facts are difficult to come by.  Discussion
and analysis involves speculation, and speculation can become very
subjective.   There is a lot of money and opportunity at stake, as well
as the potential for an unpredictable amount of disruption in the honey
houses and apiaries of countries receiving the beetle, should SHB be
exported with package bees to regions where they are not known.

There will be winners and losers, and there is fear and there is
bravado.  Somewhere in the middle is truth, but the real truth will
remain hidden until long after the decisions that must be made are
finalised, if it is ever completely known.  The decison must ulimately
be made by humans balancing the estimated risks against the estimated
rewards and, by necessity, will be somewhat artbitrary.

No matter what is decided, somebody won't be happy.

allen
http://www.honeybeeworld.com/diary/