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Host preference of the honey bee tracheal mite (Acarapis woodi (Rennie))

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Abstract

Field and laboratory bioassays were used to test the preference of the honey bee tracheal mite,Acarapis woodi (Rennie), for drones versus workers. Groups of newly-emerged drones and workers were marked and introduced into either heavily infested colonies (field bioassays) or into the cages of infested bees obtained from the field colonies (laboratory bioassays). Seven days later all of the marked bees in each bioassay were removed. The numbers of mites of each life stage in each drone or worker target bee of each experiment were quantified. Mite prevalence values for the two castes were not found to differ significantly for either experiment. However, the caste of the target bee was shown to influence the migration of the adult female mites. Drones contained a greater number of migratory female mites and greater total numbers of all mite stages as compared to workers. These results indicate that migrating female mites preferentially infest drones and suggest that the role of drones in the dissemination and population dynamics of the tracheal mite needs to be examined further.

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Author notes

  1. Barbara L. Dawicke

    Present address: Department of Entomology and Nematology, University of Florida, 32611, Gainesville, FL, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Biology, University of Guelph, N1G 2W1, Guelph, Ont., Canada

    Barbara L. Dawicke, Gard W. Otis, Cynthia Scott-Dupree & Medhat Nasr

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  1. Barbara L. Dawicke
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  2. Gard W. Otis
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  3. Cynthia Scott-Dupree
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  4. Medhat Nasr
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Dawicke, B.L., Otis, G.W., Scott-Dupree, C. et al. Host preference of the honey bee tracheal mite (Acarapis woodi (Rennie)). Exp Appl Acarol 15, 83–98 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01275519

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