Resistance to the parasitic mite Varroa destructor in honey bees from far-eastern Russia

Rinderer, TE de Guzman, LI Delatte, GT Stelzer, JA Lancaster, VA Kuznetsov, V Beaman, L

Te. Rinderer et al., Resistance to the parasitic mite Varroa destructor in honey bees from far-eastern Russia, APIDOLOGIE, 32(4), 2001, pp. 381-394

59

INGLESE

Article

Entomology/Pest Control

APIDOLOGIE

0044-8435 → ACNP

32

4

2001

381 - 394

ISI

0044-8435(200107/08)32:4<381:RTTPMV>2.0.ZU;2-7

Varroa destructor is a parasitic mite of the Asian honey bee, Apis cerana. Owing to host range expansion, it now plagues Apis mellifera, the world's p rincipal crop pollinator and honey producer. Evidence from A. mellifera in far-eastern Russia, Primorsky (P) originating from honey bees imported in t he mid 1800's, suggested that many colonies were resistant to V. destructor . A controlled field study of the development of populations of V. destruct or shows that P colonies have a strong, genetically based resistance to the parasite. As control colonies (D) were dying with infestations of ca. 10 0 00 mites, P colonies were surviving with infestations of ca. 4000 mites. Se veral characteristics of the P bees contributed to suppressing the number o f mites parasitizing their colonies.