Eats Shoots and Leaves

[Greengage]

I have read this book "Eats Shots and Leaves" some of it was funny a lot went over my head but i still enjoyed it, then I read somewhere that phoretic mites are transported on workers ‘drifting’ from nearby colonies that have a mite infestation.
Is the use of the trerm Phoretic, used in the wrong context here. Phoresy is the transportation of one organism by another, more mobile one. The term is not applied to a parasitic relationship, but minute parasites may use this means of transport to colonize new hosts. For example, feather lice accomplish phoresy by clinging to the body hairs of blood-sucking flies. https://www.britannica.com/science/phoresy
So if varroa is a parasite it would not count as being pherotic. What do you think.

[fatshark]

Semantics and custom perhaps. Are phoretic mites parasitising the bee they are being transported on? Often not, possibly always not. Whatever, the term phoretic mites is widely used and seems to be universally accepted. Since it's well established that the phoretic mites being transported are being transported (by a more mobile organism) and end up infesting a new location I think it's probably OK to use it in this context.

There's some great stuff written about phoretic mites and drifting in both older and newer literature.

[gavin]

Phoresy is when a lift is hitched on a non-parasitised species purely for transport. 'Phoretic' mites meaning mites out of a cell and on an adult bee rather than living in a sealed cell - that's just a mite out and about in my book. But the derivation of the word is 'being carried' in Greek, so what do I know.

[Mellifera Crofter]

I have read this book "Eats Shots and Leaves" ... a lot went over my head ...

I guess that was just typo, GG, rather than a confirmation of the last part of the sentence!
Kitta

[Greengage]

You should be on stage well spotted, Naughty. :rolleyes: Ok what about my Hive swarmed, Never saw a hive hanging from a tree. or flying in the sky.

[Adam]

As mites moved across the UK after (planned)* introduction, they would have done it phoretically. There are occasions where colonies become suddenly infested; possibly in autumn during robbing of a weak hive that's infested. Mite bombs. Phoreticness (t) in action I suppose.


*planned as it was bound to happen unless we actively stopped imports, which we didn't.

(t) is this a word yet?

[Adam]

Ok what about my Hive swarmed, Never saw a hive hanging from a tree. or flying in the sky.

OR "I have a bad-tempered queen". The queen is fine. It's the little brat daughters that are the problem!

[Greengage]

How about a drone layer, drones are male and cannot lay.

[chris]

How about a drone layer, drones are male and cannot lay.

If "a drone layer" meant a drone that lays, then a sword swallower would mean a sword that swallows; a book reviewer would mean a book that reviews; a pig farmer a pig that farms etc. etc.
So this implies that a drone layer means something that lays drones. Of course if we want to split hairs we should say it lays unfertilized eggs and not drones.

[Greengage]

Chris true, But how about a queen laying an egg and it hatching so where are the eggshells, Is it an egg?? and I think the correct term is it ecloses. a definition of an egg: an oval or round object laid by a female bird, reptile, fish, or invertebrate, usually containing a developing embryo. The eggs of birds are enclosed in a chalky shell, while those of reptiles are in a leathery membrane. Then is a bee an invertebrate,

[Mellifera Crofter]

... so where are the eggshells, Is it an egg?? and I think the correct term is it ecloses. ...

GG, I couldn't find 'ecloses' in any dictionary - only 'eclose' which is a verb meaning 'to hatch', and mostly used in relation to insects hatching from an egg or emerging from a pupal state. In the case of bees, the chorion (the egg 'shell') just disappears after the larva has emerged. Read Celia Davis's book, 'The Honey Bee inside out'.

Kitta

[Greengage]

OK will check it out. tks. I added the extra s for more than one, eclose to hatch, ecloses hatches Im making this up as I go along to see where it leads. :confused:

[Mellifera Crofter]

Sorry, my mistake. I now see you did use 'eclose' as a verb.
Kitta