Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Stuhl, Charles
• Romero, Maritza

Titel

Respiration levels of honey bee castes as a possible indicator in Varroa mite attraction

Ist Teil von

• Journal of apicultural research, 2023-02, Vol.ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print), p.1-3

Ort / Verlag

Taylor & Francis

Erscheinungsjahr

2023

Link zum Volltext

Quelle

Taylor & Francis Journals Auto-Holdings Collection

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• It has been demonstrated that fatty acids esters play an important role in the caste selection Varroa mites. However, there may be another mechanism of attraction in the preferred host location. We hypothesize that it may be due to differential respiration rates between larvae, but no investigations have been reported. This research was developed to determine if there is a measurable level and significant difference in honey bee caste respiration that may be exploited by Varroa mites in choice selection. In this study, we measured the respiration of all stages of the Western honey bee Apis mellifera, L. castes to determine the rate of continuous respiration. An assay was conducted using a portable photosynthesis system for gas exchange and chlorophyll fluorescence measurement (Li-Core LI-6400XT) to measure the respiration rate. In this study, a comparative analysis resulted in respiration levels that indicated a significant difference in the CO 2 levels of adult worker (777.0 ± 0.002 μg CO 2 g insect-1 min-1) and drone (375.5 µg CO 2 ) honey bees. The comparison of worker (5.59 ± 0.002 μg CO 2 g insect-1 min-1) and drone (7.20 ± 0.002 μg CO 2 g insect-1 min-1) pupae showed no significant difference in the respiration levels; however, there was a noticeable difference in respiration levels of the worker (6.33 ± 0.002 μg CO 2 g insect-1 min-1) and drone (10.07 ± 0.002 μg CO 2 g insect-1 min-1) larvae. Future research will utilize the knowledge obtained to examine the mite's attraction to the honey bee castes in host location. This information is a crucial step for the advancement of research studies and the development of management protocols for Varroa.