In response to those who speculated that the "varroa" mentioned
by Prof. De Jong of U. Sao Palo, Brazil were Varroa jacobsoni ("VJ")
rather than Varroa destructor ("VD"), Prof De Jong verified in a
recent e-mail that the mites in question were analyzed and found to
be Varroa destructor.

Since Prof De Jong works in the Department of Genetics at
U. Sao Paulo, I think we can take it as given that they have
the facilities and skill to tell the one mite from another.

He also sent 3 citations, and a link to an online copy of a
paper about these findings.

Please note that at the time these papers were written, no one
had identified Varroa destructor as unique from Varroa jacobsoni,
so ALL Varroa were incorrectly called "Varroa jacobsoni".


  De Jong, D., Soares, A.E.E.1997.  An isolated population of Italian bees
  that has resisted Varroa jacobsoni infestation without treatment for
  over 12 years. American Bee Journal 137:742-745.

  Moretto, G., Goncalves, L.S.  De Jong, D., Bichuette, M.Z.  1991.  The
  effects of climate and bee race on Varroa jacobsoni Oud. infestations in
  Brazil.  Apidologie 22:197-203.

  De Jong, D., Goncalves, L.S. and R.A. Morse  l984.  Dependence on
  climate of the virulence of Varroa jacobsoni. Bee World 65:117-121.

  http://www.funpecrp.com.br/gmr/year2002/vol2-1/gmr0040_abstract.htm

Scroll down to the bottom of the "Abstract", and click on one of the
"full text" links to read the entire paper on the website above.

So, as I said in my prior posting,  "EHB and Varroa in Brazil's Tropical Region"
http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0207c&L=bee-l&P=11740
we have an interesting situation here, where the lack of a "shutdown" of
the colony for winter seems to help keep the mite levels tolerable.

Read the papers, draw your own conclusions.  I'm still thinking about it.

My off-the-cuff question is how everyone missed the hint for so many
years after publication of these papers.  There is something very significant
going on down there, with potential advantage for the entire industry.

On the other hand, I got a full-color brochure promoting "Checkmite+"
in my mailbox today (buy 10 strips of deadly organophosphate from
one of Bayer's dealers, and get a free hive tool, or some such nonsense),
so maybe I should understand why no one has followed up on Prof. De Jong's
findings.    :)

        jim