An ecological shift caused by two mighty mites
What animal that was introduced into the New World in the early 1600's is in danger of being driven toward extinction by two parasitic mites?The mites* appeared in the U.S. in the mid 1980's but have been wreaking destruction world wide.
One of the mites lives inside the hosts' tracheae (breathing tubes). The other feeds on the hosts' young and either kills or cripples them.
Answer: The common European honeybee, Apis mellifera
* MITES: Tiny, eight-legged invertebrates (Order Acari). Taxonomically they belong, with spiders (Order Araneida) in the Class Arachnida which is a sub-group of the Phylum Arthropoda.
Want to find out more about mites? Try MITES - a page on the University of Arizona Web Site.