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Further observations on the correlation between attractiveness of honey bee brood cells to Varroa jacobsoni and the distance from larva to cell rim
Author(s) -
Boot Willem J.,
Driessen Ronald G.,
Calis Johan N. M.,
Beetsma Joop
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
entomologia experimentalis et applicata
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.765
H-Index - 83
eISSN - 1570-7458
pISSN - 0013-8703
DOI - 10.1111/j.1570-7458.1995.tb01966.x
Subject(s) - brood , biology , varroa jacobsoni , larva , varroa , acari , zoology , drone , anatomy , ecology , botany , hymenoptera , apidae
Varroa jacobsoni Oudemans (Acari: Varroidae) was studied with respect to invasion into different types of honeybee, Apis mellifera L., brood cells. Different cell types were obtained by shortening and elongating of cells, grafting worker larvae into drone cells and vice versa. The type of cell strongly affected the number of mites per cell, and the attractive period of the cells to the mites. The type of cell also affected the distance from larva to cell rim preceding cell capping. When this distance was larger in comparison to control cells of the same age, the attractive period of the brood cells was shorter and vice versa. Since in all cell types the distance from larva to cell rim continuously decreased preceding cell capping, this negative correlation is in agreement with the hypothesis that there is a critical larva‐rim distance under which brood cells are attractive to mites. Then, the length of the attractive period of brood cells depends on the moment this critical distance is reached. The distribution of mites over different cell types in turn results from differences in the attractive period.