Abstract
Globalization has facilitated the spread of emerging pests such as the Varroa destructor mite, resulting in the near global distribution of the pest. In South African and Brazilian honey bees, mite-resistant colonies appeared within a decade; in Europe, mite-resistant colonies are rare, but several of these exhibited high levels of “re-capping” behavior. We studied re-capping in Varroa-naïve (UK/Australia) and Varroa-resistant (South Africa and Brazil) populations and found very low and very high levels, respectively, with the resistant populations targeting mite-infested cells. Furthermore, 54% of artificially infested A. m. capensis worker cells were removed after 10 days and 83% of the remaining infested cells were re-capped. Such targeted re-capping of drone cells did not occur. We propose that cell opening is a fundamental trait in mite-resistant populations and that re-capping is an accurate proxy for this behavior.
Highlights
During the past 70 years, the ectoparasitic “Varroa” mite (Varroa destructor ) has spread worldwide and has become the greatest threat for apiculture, killing large numbers of managed Apis mellifera honey bee colonies (Rosenkranz et al 48), while decimating feral and wild populations (Wenner et al 56)
This was initially followed by some colony losses; these were short-lived, with mite resistance appearing after 3–5 years in the Cape honey bee (A. m. capensis ) and 6–7 years in the Savanna honey bee (A. m. scutellata ) (Allsopp 1)
We focused on A. m. capensis, which was found to have the highest targeted re-capping of mite-infested cells
Summary
During the past 70 years, the ectoparasitic “Varroa” mite (Varroa destructor ) has spread worldwide and has become the greatest threat for apiculture, killing large numbers of managed Apis mellifera honey bee colonies (Rosenkranz et al 48), while decimating feral and wild populations (Wenner et al 56). The evolution of defense mechanisms can occur rapidly (< 100 years) but is rarely seen occurring simultaneously in allopatric populations (Thompson 52), in South Africa and Brazil, their honey bees quickly became resistant to Varroa (Rosenkranz 46). That is, they did not receive nor require the administering of any mitecontrol methods to ensure their long-term survival, and no population-wide loss of colonies occurred. The Varroa mite arrived in Africa in 1997 to the Cape Region of South Africa (Allsopp 1) This was initially followed by some colony losses; these were short-lived, with mite resistance appearing after 3–5 years in the Cape honey bee This pattern of shortlived colony loss prior to the appearance of mite resistance is frequently mentioned in other mite-resistant populations (e.g., Fries et al 12; Mordecai et al 33; Oddie et al 37)
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