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Honeybee virus: Varroa mite spreads lethal disease
A parasitic mite has helped a virus wipe out billions of honeybees throughout the globe, say scientists.
A team studying honeybees in Hawaii found that the Varroa mite helped spread a particularly nasty strain of a disease called deformed wing virus.
The mites act as tiny incubators of one deadly form of the disease, and inject it directly into the bees' blood.
This has led to "one of the most widely-distributed and contagious insect viruses on the planet".
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/18339797
There have been claims made regarding the varroa mite in the past in connection with bee deaths . This appears to be new research