Abstract
The ectoparasitic mite Varroa destructor is the most dangerous pest of honeybee Egyptian race Apis mellifera L., as it causes many losses in apiculture worldwide. Adult female mites are flattened with a dome-shaped dorsal shield. The present SEM study revealed that the flat ventral surface is composed of series of plates. There are 5 rows of small, chemoreceptor papillae posterior to the genito-ventro anal shield, and a unique respiratory structure (peritreme) is located laterally above Coxa III. Peritreme is a chitinized elongated area surrounding stigma opening, provided by a lid that looks like a rose with a curly thick inner membrane which has numerous teeth-like projections. Mite' legs appeared to be modified for parasitism and each is tipped by one distal empodium. The pretarsus of the first pair of legs becomes a concave sucker and the pretarsus of the 3 pairs of the posterior legs consists of membranous amblacral pad (the caruncle). The mouthparts appeared well modified for its diet on bee hernolymph with its' powerful pedipalp for host attachment. High magnification revealed different types of setae distributed on the body, the mechano-receptor pedipalp short. and long anal setae and dorsal shield sensory simple setae.
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