| Species: | Varroa destructor | |
| Genera: | Varroa | |
| Family: | Varroidae | |
| Distribution: | V. destructor has spread all over the world except Australia and central Africa causing severe losses of honeybee populations in USA and worldwide. India: Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Bihar and West Bengal. | |
| Host Crops: | Apis cerana, A. koshchevnikovi, A. mellifera mellifera, A. m. capenis, A. m. carnica, A. m. iberica, A. m. intermissa, A. m. ligustica, A. m. macedonica, A. m. meda, A. m. scutellata, and A. m. syriaca. Also found on flower feeding-insects Bombus pennsylvanicus (Hymenoptera: Apidae), Palpada vinetorum (Diptera: Syrphidae), and Phanaeus vindex (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae) but cannot reproduce on them. | |
| Nature of Damage: | Large numbers of unsealed brood cells, dead or dying newly emerged bees with malformed wings, legs, abdomen, and thorax at the entrance of affected colonies, lowered body weights and reduced longevity of developing and adult bees, high mortality of brood and bees, 40 to 100 per cent loss within three years of initial infestation, reduced honey production, decrease in pollination efficiency, vectors of pathogens, bee parasitic mite syndrome. Their number may reach up to 10,000 mites/ A. mellifera hive, 5 mites/ worker bee, 12 mites/ drone bee, 12 mites/ worker brood and 20 mites/ drone brood. | |
| Life Cycle: | The reproduction cycle starts when a female mite enters a brood cell just before it is sealed on 5th or 6th day. The female mite lays one unfertilized egg from which a male hatches and a number of fertilized eggs from which females hatch. At 60 h after sealing, first unfertilized egg is laid. Fertilized eggs are laid from 90 h onwards. Total development time is 6.5 days in males and 5 - 5.5 days in females. In males, egg stage last for 30 h, protonymph for 52 h and deutonymph for 72 h but in female egg stage last for 20-24 h, protonymph for 30 h and deutonymph for 75-80 h. Mating occurs within the sealed cells. Causes of Rapid Spread of Varroa: migratory nature of the beekeeping, transferring from one host to another during summer robbing, during inter-colony drifting of workers and drones, from drones to queens during mating, from adult bees on to brood, from newly emerged bees on to older bees, importation of queen bees from infested areas and transportation of infested bee colonies. Detection of Varroa: Hive debris method (Plate), Sticky paper method (Plate), dusting of Powdered sugar (Plate), pulling up capped brood cells using a cappings scratcher | |