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Wikipaedia describes SHB quite clearly as a pest.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_hive_beetle
It is interesting to look at the references there.
"Despite the fact that small hive beetles may cause considerable damage in
bee colonies in the U.S., they increasingly are considered a secondary pest
of bee colonies, much like the greater (Galleria mellonella Linnaeus) and
lesser (Achroia grisella Fabricius) wax moths (Ellis and Hepburn 2006).
Colonies hosting other bee diseases/pests appear more likely to suffer small
hive beetle damage than healthy ones."
from
http://entomology.ifas.ufl.edu/creatures/misc/bees/small_hive_beetle.htm
So, secondary pest? That description is more like that of a scavenger. As
Randy mentioned in his post.
Since it is not advantageous to a parasite to kill its host, they normally
do not. To a pest it doesn't matter, since they simply move to another host
once they have completed their process (be it feeding or reproduction or
both). That behaviour is more characteristic of a pest than that of a
parasite.
And thats what SHB does
However I am assured by some Dept of Agriculture personnel here, that some
parasites do indeed kill their hosts, and some sheep parasites do just that!
I am not sure if these are the parasitoids or semelparous parasites that
Randy mentioned, but the other point that has emerged is that it depends on
if you consider the beehive to be a superorganism Sheep are a herd animal,
so perhaps a flock of sheep can be considered a superorganism?
Commonsense tells me that SHB is a pest, but some "experts" (no disrespect
intended) say otherwise, and that its a parasite.
Trouble is, some of these experts are lawyers not biologists....so who is
right? Maybe both?
This is not just a philosophical question, and Juanse is justified in
raising it....it actually matters to officialdom. And that reflects in their
responses to new incursions.
PeterD
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