The first published record of this disorder appeared in 1869. An anonymous author reported loss of bees which left behind hives with plenty of honey. It was speculated that the death was due to a lack of pollen, poisonous honey, or a hot summer. Subsequently, Aikin described losses in Colorado in 1891 and 1896 where large clusters disappeared or dwindled to tiny clusters with queens in May, hence the name "May disease". Investigations at the time identified various fungi with these collapses. Burnside was able to isolate, culture, and reproduce symptoms very similar to CCD with a strain of Aspergillus fungi. In three epidemics between 1905 and 1919, 90% of the honey bee colonies on the Island of Wight in the United Kingdom died. Bees afflicted with this disorder could not fly, but crawled from the entrance. Researchers disagreed as to the cause of this affliction. Some concluded that the losses were due to acarine disease or the honey bee tracheal mite, Acarapis woodi. Others believed that starvation was the cause of the losses]; while still others thought Nosema disease caused the high losses . Some affected beekeepers over the years have blamed their losses on the so-called "Isle of Wight disease" whenever they could not find another cause Colony Collapse Disorder: Have We Seen This Before? Robyn M. Underwood and Dennis vanEngelsdorp **************************************************** * General Information About BEE-L is available at: * * http://www.honeybeeworld.com/bee-l/default.htm * ****************************************************