Abstract
The current study revealed the effect of some honey bee products viz., pollen, honey, propolis and bee wax and some plant oils on the greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella L. (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae). Results show that the females produced from the larvae which had fed on bee wax mixed with propolis gave the highest mean of egg, larval, pre-pupal, pupal and development periods which were 7.4 ± 0.40, 34.2 ± 0.66, 6.8 ± 0.86, 13.2 ± 0.66 and 61.1 ± 1.21 days, respectively. The longest mean of pre-oviposition was 3.2 ± 0.37 days, and the shortest means of oviposition and post-oviposition period was 4.4 ± 0.51and 1.0 ± 0.0 days, respectively. The shortest means of male and female longevity were 9.8 ± 0.49 and 8.4 ± 0.75 days, respectively. While the lowest means of the weight of each larva and pupa were 105.2 ± 5.47 and 71.0 ± 2.43 mg, respectively. Also, results show the effect of clove, garlic and rosemary oils on larval mortality of G. mellonella. The highest mean percentage of larval mortality was for clove oil (68.33 ± 3.33%), followed by garlic oil, 51.66 ± 1.66. The lowest mean percentage of larval mortality was for rosemary oil (38.66 ± 4.41%) at a concentration of 3% after 7 days of treatment, respectively.
Highlights
The greater wax moth Galleria mellonella L. (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) is a notorious pest of honey bee colonies, and the larvae cause no direct damage to bees at any stage of their life (Hanumanthaswamy, 2000)
Effect of Some Honey Bee Products on the Immature Stages of G. mellonella: Incubation Period: Data in Figure (1) show that the mean incubation periods of eggs laid by adult females of G. mellonella fed on bee wax mixed with pollen or honey or propolis by 3% separately during larval stage were 4.4 ± 0.24, 5.8 ± 0.58 and 7.4 ± 0.40 days, respectively
The mean larval duration decreased to 20 ± 0.54 and 23.8 ± 0.86 days for larvae that had fed on bee wax mixed with pollen or honey each separately, respectively
Summary
The greater wax moth Galleria mellonella L. (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) is a notorious pest of honey bee colonies, and the larvae cause no direct damage to bees at any stage of their life (Hanumanthaswamy, 2000). Adults hide in dark places during the day and fly at night (Gillard, 2009). It blooms in warm areas and poor ventilation that honey bees do not protect (Williams, 1997; Ellis et al, 2013). Adults do not feed because they have atrophy in the mouth, but the damage happened during the larval stage due to the voracious feeding of the larvae which leads to the destruction of the honeycomb (Awasthi and Sharma, 2013; Ellis et al, 2013; Kwadha et al, 2017). Larvae cause great damage to beeswax combs that the bees have left unattended; resulting heavy economic losses for beekeepers
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