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      How Crucial is the Functional Pit Organ for the Varroa Mite?

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          Abstract

          Olfaction as well as gustation, are essential for animal survival, allowing behavioral modulation according to environmental input. We focused our study on an obligate ecto-parasitic mite of honey bees, the Varroa destructor Anderson and Trueman (Parasitiformes, Mesostigmata, Varroidae). By mechanically blocking the main olfactory organ on Varroa forelegs by varnishing with nail polish, we were able to show that other sensory organs cannot significantly compensate chemosensory abilities required for mite’s host selection, identification as well as reproduction. In fact, we found that mites with blocked forelegs had a significantly lower ability to reach a host bee than those with varnished idiosoma and unvarnished control. Furthermore, fewer foreleg blocked mites were feeding on the nurse bees and their reproduction in the brood cells was significantly impaired. The inhibition of reproduction was also reflected in altered expression levels of vitellogenin and vitellogenin receptor genes in foreleg-blocked mites.

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          Varroa destructor feeds primarily on honey bee fat body tissue and not hemolymph

          Samuel Ramsey, Ronald Ochoa, Gary Bauchan … (2019)
          Significance Varroa destructor causes considerable damage to honey bees and subsequently the field of apiculture through just one process: feeding. For five decades, we have believed that these mites consume hemolymph like a tick consumes blood, and that Varroa cause harm primarily by vectoring viruses. Our work shows that they cause damage more directly. Varroa externally digest and consume fat body tissue rather than blood. These findings explain the failure of some previous attempts at developing effectively targeted treatment strategies for Varroa control. Furthermore, it provides some explanation for the diverse array of debilitating pathologies associated with Varroa that were unexplained by hemolymph removal alone. Our work provides a path forward for the development of novel treatment strategies for Varroa.
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            Varroa-Virus Interaction in Collapsing Honey Bee Colonies

            Roy Francis, Steen Nielsen, Per Kryger (2013)
            Varroa mites and viruses are the currently the high-profile suspects in collapsing bee colonies. Therefore, seasonal variation in varroa load and viruses (Acute-Kashmir-Israeli complex (AKI) and Deformed Wing Virus (DWV)) were monitored in a year-long study. We investigated the viral titres in honey bees and varroa mites from 23 colonies (15 apiaries) under three treatment conditions: Organic acids (11 colonies), pyrethroid (9 colonies) and untreated (3 colonies). Approximately 200 bees were sampled every month from April 2011 to October 2011, and April 2012. The 200 bees were split to 10 subsamples of 20 bees and analysed separately, which allows us to determine the prevalence of virus-infected bees. The treatment efficacy was often low for both treatments. In colonies where varroa treatment reduced the mite load, colonies overwintered successfully, allowing the mites and viruses to be carried over with the bees into the next season. In general, AKI and DWV titres did not show any notable response to the treatment and steadily increased over the season from April to October. In the untreated control group, titres increased most dramatically. Viral copies were correlated to number of varroa mites. Most colonies that collapsed over the winter had significantly higher AKI and DWV titres in October compared to survivors. Only treated colonies survived the winter. We discuss our results in relation to the varroa-virus model developed by Stephen Martin.
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              Activation and interruption of the reproduction of Varroa destructor is triggered by host signals (Apis mellifera).

              Eva-Maria Frey, Richard Odemer, Christopher Thomas Blum … (2013)
              The reproductive cycle of the parasitic mite Varroa destructor is closely linked to the development of the honey bee host larvae. Using a within colony approach we introduced phoretic Varroa females into brood cells of different age in order to analyze the capacity of certain stages of the honey bee larva to either activate or interrupt the reproduction of Varroa females. Only larvae within 18 h (worker) and 36 h (drones), respectively, after cell capping were able to stimulate the mite's oogenesis. Therewith we could specify for the first time the short time window where honey bee larvae provide the signals for the activation of the Varroa reproduction. Stage specific volatiles of the larval cuticle are at least part of these activation signals. This is confirmed by the successful stimulation of presumably non-reproducing mites to oviposition by the application of a larval extract into the sealed brood cells. According to preliminary quantitative GC-MS analysis we suggest certain fatty acid ethyl esters as candidate compounds. If Varroa females that have just started with egg formation are transferred to brood cells containing host larvae of an elder stage two-thirds of these mites stopped their oogenesis. This confirms the presence of an additional signal in the host larvae allowing the reproducing mites to adjust their own reproductive cycle to the ontogenetic development of the host. From an adaptive point of view that sort of a stop signal enables the female mite to save resources for a next reproductive cycle if the own egg development is not sufficiently synchronized with the development of the host. The results presented here offer the opportunity to analyze exactly those host stages that have the capacity to activate or interrupt the Varroa reproduction in order to identify the crucial host signals.
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                Author and article information

                Journal
                Journal ID (nlm-ta): Insects
                Journal ID (iso-abbrev): Insects
                Journal ID (publisher-id): insects
                Title: Insects
                Publisher: MDPI
                ISSN (Electronic): 2075-4450
                Publication date (Electronic): 26 June 2020
                Publication date Collection: June 2020
                Volume: 11
                Issue: 6
                Electronic Location Identifier: 395
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Institute of Plant Protection, Agricultural Research Organization, The Volcani Center, P.O.B 15159, Rishon leZion 7505101, Israel; beatricen@ 123456volcani.agri.gov.il (B.T.N.); ahilkannanbdu@ 123456gmail.com (K.M.); yamalt88@ 123456gmail.com (Y.A.); vtada@ 123456volcani.agri.gov.il (A.R.)
                [2 ]Mina and Aberhard Gudman Faculty of Life Sciences, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan 5290002, Israel
                Author notes
                Author information
                https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0897-8842
                Article
                Publisher ID: insects-11-00395
                DOI: 10.3390/insects11060395
                PMC ID: 7349574
                PubMed ID: 32604887
                SO-VID: 27d50e20-863a-49dc-aa0f-1726283f2d3f
                Copyright © © 2020 by the authors.
                License:

                Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license ( http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).

                History
                Date received : 02 June 2020
                Date accepted : 24 June 2020
                Categories
                Subject: Article

                Keywords: honey bees,acari,reproduction,parasite–host interaction
                Data availability:
                Keywords: honey bees, acari, reproduction, parasite–host interaction

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