Honey bees and the Varroa mite.

Justin Holmes

P-8

9/23/12

Bibliography: BioMed Central Limited. "Honey bees fight back against Varroa." ScienceDaily, 26 Sep. 2012. Web. 27 Sep. 2012.

How do bees find infected larva?

Protein in the antenna were associated with opening brood cells and extracting the larvae

Different proteins were used in signal transduction, helping the adults find infected larvae

What do the varroa mites do?

The varrora mites suck the blood of larval honey bees and adult honey bees

The mites can also spread disease in the colony

How do the honey bees fight back?

The bees have developed a system called Hygenic Behavior which is where they remove parasitized larvae from the broods

Another way they have is Varrora sensitive hygenic behavior. This is when they get rid of some of the reproductives mites from the larvae