The following brief note by Professor Bob Hider, head of the Pharmacy Department at Kings College London, elaborates on the lecture given at the Devon Beekeepers' Association!IBRA meeting at Seale-Hayne Agricultural College last year.The majority of the lecture was published in Bee World 68(2): 51–70 in 1987. However, in addition a comparison between Africanized and European honeybees, and a note on colony defence by the Japanese honeybee was included.