A new approach for detecting effective reproductive ability of Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidae)

Autor: Diego Fagundes Kolling, Geraldo Moretto, Francisco Estevão Carneiro, Roger Strapazzon, Sabrina Alejandra Ramirez, José C.V. Guerra Jr.
Rok vydání: 2009
Předmět:
Zdroj: Journal of Apicultural Research. 48:11-14
ISSN: 2078-6913
0021-8839
Popis: SummaryThe effective reproductive capacity of Varroa destructor in honey bee colonies is currently calculated on the basis of the number of female deutonymphs found in singly infested worker brood cells at 17–18 days (two to three days before the bee emerges). This calculation presumes that the deutonymphs will reach the adult stage by the time that the adult bee ecloses. Some deutonymphs may not, however, reach the adult phase and there also could be mortality. In order to examine this possibility, we studied mite reproduction in worker brood of Africanized honey bee colonies at 17–18 days and then selected eight colonies in which over 90% of the infested brood cells contained a single original female mite. The mean proportion of singly infested worker brood cells in these colonies was 96.3%. Consequently, by subtracting one from the total number of adult female mites found at the time the bee emerged we would be able to estimate the effective reproductive capacity of the original mites, with little erro...
Databáze: OpenAIRE