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Varroa destructor
The Varroa destructor is an external parasitic mite that attacks the honey bees. It's the small shiny reddish brown disc on the thorax of the bee. Pic 3 shows the result of the virus that has inflicted a beehive. The mite preferentially infests drone cells, allowing the mite to reproduce one more time with the extra three days it takes a drone to emerge vs a worker bee. This can cause genetic defects such as useless wings or viruses and fungi in the bee.
Spotted on a honey bee at a farm near Redmond, Washington.
I took pic 3 near Conway, Arkansas in October 13, 2016 at a friends bee yard. Since this picture is not of the same spotting as the first two I'm hoping that PN will allow it in this spotting. My friend now has to treat his hives with chemicals to kill the mites.
Spotted on Aug 21, 2018
Submitted on Nov 27, 2018
4 Comments
Thanks Lauren! Great article! Very informative.
Fascinating. I didn't expect the mite to be so large. I was reading that the phoretic phase female is usually found under the sternites so it is amazing that you have that picture of one on the thorax. This article is really neat for all of us who didn't know much about this mite http://www.ask-force.org/web/Bees/Rosenk....
Thanks Greyson for commenting. It's hard to believe that the primary cause of decline of the western honeybee is mostly due to the introduction of this mite.
i feel so bad for this poor honeybee ;w;