Abstract
Recent surveys of honey bee colony mortality due to the external parasite Varroa jacobsoni (Oudemans) suggest that the virulence of this mite pest may be affected by climate or honey bee race. The latter possibility was tested by examining the effect of varroa infestation on colonies of Africanized and European bees in Brazil. Infestation of varroa on colonies of both bees was similar, but there were significant differences between percentages of mites that reproduced. In European bee colonies, 75% of infested brood cells had immature mites compared with only 49% of infested brood cells in colonies of Africanized bees. Decreased rate of varroa reproduction on Africanized honey bee worker brood is one factor contributing to reduction of virulence of varroa in Africanized bee colonies. The role of a second factor, length of honey bee pupal state, also is discussed. Honey bee race rather than differences in climate appears to play a crucial role in resistance to varroa.
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