Sept. 9 - To the Editor:

I have great news for all you "greenies" out there.

No doubt a great many of you have been carrying on about the mysterious malady that seems to be wiping out honeybees all over the place. And, indeed, I myself have been concerned upon noticing that they've been kind of light on the ground for the last couple of years.

Unlike you, however, I don't go around like Chicken Little crying about imminent ecological collapse. Mother Nature has things well in hand. If the balance is upset, she moves in to restore it: wipe out the eastern cougar, timber wolf? The wildcats undergo a population explosion and the coyote expands his range and before you know it, the vacuum's been filed. The balance restored.

It's the same thing here. If you hadn't been so busy carrying on and prophesying doom, you would've noticed that the slack's been already picked up by a dramatic increase in the numbers of other types of bees and other species of nectar/pollen-feeding insects.

Let's face it: Even if the honeybee does become extinct (which I do not believe will happen, because it'll be something of a first!), the only ones affected by it (other than the honeybees themselves, that is!) will be us.

But I did say I had good news, didn't I?

Well, I do.

For the honeybees are making a comeback! Imagine my surprise the other day when I actually saw several! Runty looking, yes, but unmistakably honeybees.

More than that, I saw several insects that looked like small, drab colored mini-bees, which I instantly recognized as honeybees (mutant ones, maybe?) by the unmistakable load of pollen that they were camping on their hind legs.

So get set for a comeback.

And next time don't get all excited ahead of time. Remember that someone else is in control.

B.J. Figueredo

Gonic