Abstract
Suppressed mite reproduction (SMR) is an important trait for the selection of Varroa resistant honey bee colonies. It has repeatedly been assumed that SMR is an effect of varroa sensitive hygiene (VSH) when hygienic bees preferably remove those brood cells where the mite has reproduced. We here compare the VSH behaviour of honey bees toward brood cells artificial infested with a varroa mite. By infesting half of the brood cells directly after the cell capping and the other half only 24 h later, we established two groups with high (> 75%) and low (< 2%) mite reproduction. After 8 days, about 40% of the infested brood cells were removed, however without any difference between both groups. Likewise, no group differences were recorded in the percentage of recapped brood cells. This strongly indicates that the presence of mite offspring is not a crucial trigger for the VSH behaviour. SMR data like the percentage of non-reproducing mites are therefore not the optimal measure for the selection of colonies with high VSH.
Highlights
The ectoparasite Varroa destructor of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) represents the main cause of periodical colony losses and is still the greatest threat for global beekeeping (Genersch et al 2010; Le Conte et al 2010; Traynor et al 2020)
This study closely examines the removal behaviour of adult bees towards cells infested by reproductive and non-reproductive mites, in order to Reproduction of Varroa destructor does not elicit varroa sensitive hygiene (VSH) or recapping
About 7–9 days post capping of these brood cells, the respective combs are analysed for mite infested cells and for the presence of mite offspring and the ratio of reproducing to non-reproducing mites provide the basis for the VSH value (Büchler et al 2017; Mondet et al 2020a)
Summary
The ectoparasite Varroa destructor of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) represents the main cause of periodical colony losses and is still the greatest threat for global beekeeping (Genersch et al 2010; Le Conte et al 2010; Traynor et al 2020). The survival of managed honey bee colonies depends essentially on the periodic application of effective mite control measures by the beekeepers. A stable varroa tolerant breeding line is not yet completely established and commercially available, some breeding programs show promising steps towards resistant honey bee colonies. Targeted selection is complicated by the fact that there are several mechanisms that contribute to varroa resistance in honeybees. This includes features on the colony level like frequent swarming or small colony size (Loftus et al 2016) and mechanisms to reduce the reproductive success of the mite like suppressed mite reproduction (SMR), varroa sensitive hygiene (VSH), and recapping (REC)
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