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About one third of all food is produced as a result of insect pollination, and the European honeybee, Apis mellifera, is responsible for about 80% of this. In Australia, farmers rely on large populations of feral European honeybees (managed bees gone wild).

The European honeybee is under threat The Asian honeybee, Apis cerana, poses a significant threat to these populations as it is a host to two types of predatory mites with the capacity to wipe out huge numbers of the European honeybee – the varroa mite (Varroa destructor) and the Asian bee mite (Tropilaelaps clareae).

The bee team is currently using molecular and physical methods to investigate the ecology, epidemiology, invasiveness, co-evolution and control of exotic parasitic bee mites and their Asian honeybee hosts.

Photographer : Nick Pitsas

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