ASPECTS OF THE HISTORY AND BIOGEOGRAPHY OF THE BEE MITES Tropilaelaps clareae AND T. koenigerum

The paper deals with aspects of the two known brood parasites of honey bees from Asia, namely the tropical bee mites Tropilaelaps clareae Delfinado et Baker and Tropilaelaps koenigerum Delfinado-Baker et Baker. These species of Tropilaelaps belong to the family Laelapidae (Mesostigmata). They feed on bee larvae and pupae causing brood malformation and the death of bees. T. clareae occurs on 5 species of bee Apis cerana, A. dorsata, A. florea, A. laboriosa and A. mellifera. T. clareae is known to have a wide disribution in Asia extending eastwards from Iran to Papua New Guinea. T. koenigerum on the other hand and as far as is known at present, has a more restricted distribution. Because of the great interest in Varroa and to a lesser extent Acarapis woodi Rennie, the importance of Tropilaelaps mites has not been sufficiently recognised. There is some concern that Tropilaelaps may become established on A. mellifera in temperate climates. Tropilaelaps mites therefore are an important potential threat to beekeeping in parts of the world other than South-East Asia.