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Varroa destructor, the Varroa mite, is an external parasitic mite that attacks and feeds on honey bees and is one of the most damaging honey bee pests in the world. [ 2 ] [ 3 ] A significant mite infestation leads to the death of a honey bee colony, usually in the late autumn through early spring.
Varroa is a genus of parasitic mesostigmatan mites associated with honey bees, placed in its own family, Varroidae. [4] The genus was named for Marcus Terentius Varro, a Roman scholar and beekeeper. The condition of a honeybee colony being infested with Varroa mites is called varroosis (also, incorrectly, varroatosis).
Varroa destructor and V. jacobsoni are parasitic mites that feed on the fat bodies of adult, pupal and larval bees. When the hive is very heavily infested, Varroa mites can be seen with the naked eye as a small red or brown spot on the bee's thorax. Varroa mites are carriers for many viruses that are damaging to bees.
Mesostigmata is an order of mites belonging to the Parasitiformes. They are by far the largest group of Parasitiformes, with over 8,000 species in 130 families. Mesostigmata includes parasitic as well as free-living and predatory forms. They can be recognized by the single pair of spiracles positioned laterally on the body.
The main body cavity is a hemocoel that runs most of the length of the body and through which blood flows, driven by a tubular heart that collects blood from the rear and pumps it forward. Although arteries direct the blood to specific parts of the body, they have open ends rather than joining directly to veins , and chelicerates therefore have ...
After the introduction of Varroa mites, feral honey bees declined dramatically in the US, though their numbers have since recovered. [117] [118] The number of colonies kept by beekeepers declined slightly, through urbanization, systematic pesticide use, tracheal and Varroa mites, and the closure of
“The itchy rash can persist for two to three weeks as the dead mites and eggs can continue to annoy the immune system, as the top layer of the skin turns over every 14 days,” adds Dr. Friedman.
Varroa jacobsoni is a species of mite that parasitises Apis cerana (Asian honey bees). The more damaging Varroa destructor was previously included under the name V. jacobsoni, but the two species can be separated on the basis of the DNA sequence of the cytochrome oxidase I gene in the mitochondrial DNA.