Hi Bob--I hope your help get better, so you can keep joining in the fun!

>For decades researchers said varroa jacobsoni had jumped from cerana and
was
killing the worlds bees.
This was a undisputed FACT with the worlds beekeeping researchers.

It was a fact that the mite had jumped.  No name existed for V destructor,
since no one knew that it was indeed a different species, so the assumed
name was given.  In taxonomy, nomenclature (naming) is constantly changing.
For example, when I was in fisheries, the rainbow trout was called Salmo
gairdineri.  It was later renamed to Oncorhynchus gairdeneri, since it was
noticed that it was more closely related to the Pacific Salmon than to the
Atlantic Salmon.  In any case, it didn't make any difference to fishermen.

Similarly, the name given to the mite didn't make any difference to
beekeepers.

>
> >Then along came Denis Anderson and while observing varroa noticed varroa
> jacobsoni was ROUND and the varroa killing the worlds bees was OBLONG . Wow
> how could the worlds researchers have made such a mistake?
>

A very easy thing to miss.  Dennis would be the first to say (said it to
me).  In the new Aussie film "Honeybee Blues," Denis is shown discovering V
jacobsoni infesting Apis mellifera in New Guinea.  The species looks so
similar that he had to find a V destructor to put side by side to tell the
difference.

>
> >So varroa destructor was named and now we have a new FACT.
>

We now have a new name.

>
> >varroa destructor ( the oblong mite) is the problem and not varroa
> jacobsoni ( the oval mite).
>

Actually, jacobsoni is the problem in PNG, and may well spread to the rest
of the world, as V destructor (Korean haplotype) did.

>
> >So although a fact is accepted as the absolute truth today there is always
> a
> chance down the road the FACT will need to be changed.
>

Although I don't know if the above was a good example, the maxim of science
is that absolutely everything is up for reinterpretation.  That is why
questioning, challenging, and discussion can be so fruitful.

Randy Oliver

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