Mites - can you help?

Dr. Mercedes Delfinado-Baker is compiling a world survey of mites associated with bees and needs samples of Bees suspected of being infested. It is very important that you post the bees to her so that they are fit to be examined upon arrival. Instructions on how to pack the bees, and the information which you should send with them, are listed in Newsletter No. 3, and in Bee World 63, No.4, page 178.

Dr. Delfinado-Baker, Bioenvironmental Bee Laboratory, Beltsville, USA.

Margaret Nixon asks me to tell you that since she published the preliminary world maps of honeybee diseases and parasites in Bee World 63, No. I, 1962, she received many new records and amendments from readers. She has now published these reports, together with two new mans of V. jacobsoni and T. clareae in Bee World 64, No. 3, 1983.

The initial stimulus for this survey of honeybee diseases and parasites arose when one of the enquiries sent to IBPA requested information about the disease position world-wide. The country concerned was about to commence importing honey, but wished to prevent any possibility of disease being spread to their own beekeeping industry. While trying to find an answer to their enquiry, Margaret Nixon found that information about the distribution of bee diseases throughout the world had not been brought together.

A detailed distribution map for India by Dr. K.N. Kshirsagar has already been published (Bee World 63, No. 4, 162-164, 1982) We very much hope that individuals in other countries will produce similar detailed distribution maps for their own countries, and send them to IBRA.

Please continue to send reports of honeybee diseases and parasites to Information Officer for Tropical Apiculture, Dr. Nicola Bradbear, who is continuing with the monitoring of bee diseases, and will publish updated — maps as new information becomes available.