Heritability in Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) of Characteristics Associated with Resistance to Varroa jacobsoni(Mesostigmata: Varroidae)

@article{Harbo1999HeritabilityIH,
  title={Heritability in Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) of Characteristics Associated with Resistance to Varroa jacobsoni(Mesostigmata: Varroidae)},
  author={John R. Harbo and Jeffrey W. Harris},
  journal={Journal of Economic Entomology},
  year={1999},
  volume={92},
  pages={261-265}
}
This study uses sibling analysis to measure the heritability in honey bees, Apis mellifera L., of characteristics that have been associated with resistance to the mite, Varroa jacobsoni Oudemans. Twenty-eight uniform colonies of bees were established on 13 May in Baton Rouge, LA, each with 1 kg of mite-infested bees and a queen. The 28 unrelated queens in these colonies were divided into 7 groups of 4 based on the insemination of 4 queens with the same mixture of semen from 1 of 7 sire colonies… 
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Reproduction of the bee mite , Varroa destructor Anderson and Trueman ( Acari : Varroidae ) , in worker brood cells of Primorsky and Thai commercial honey bees ( Apis mellifera Linnaeus )

Investigation of Varroa destructor non-reproduction and the number of progeny produced by reproductive mites and fecundity in Primorsky and Thai commercial colonies found mites that did not lay eggs and mites with progeny that were too young to mature before the host bee emerged from its cell were significant.

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It is discussed that the trigger for grooming behavior may be density-dependent: grooming may be only beneficial at high mite infestation levels, and other resistance mechanisms than grooming are more likely to explain the varroa resistance of two resistant A. mellifera populations.

Population Growth of Varroa destructor (Acari: Varroidae) in Colonies of Russian and Unselected Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Stocks as Related to Numbers of Foragers With Mites.

Under conditions where FWM populations are similar between RHB and USL, attributes that contribute to mite resistance in RHB may not keep Varroa population levels below that of USL.

Examining Varroa-resistant Honey Bee Queens from Commercial Breeders: Colony Productivity, Hygienic Behavior, Suppression of Mite Reproduction, and the Relationship of Juvenile Hormone III to Mite Abundance

Data suggest that, while the levels of resistant traits in hybrid SMR and Russian queens available from commercial breeders do not differ significantly from controls, these traits are present in the honey bee population as a whole and contribute to lower parasite infestations.

Can the frequency of reduced Varroa destructor fecundity in honey bee (Apis mellifera) pupae be increased by selection

The results suggest that the frequency of larval or pupal characteristics in worker honeybees that might influence mite reproductive rates cannot be increased by selection based on average mite fecundity.

Suppressed mite reproduction explained by the behaviour of adult bees

By targeting the reproductive mites, bees with the SMR trait give the illusion that nearly all of the mites are non-reproductive, therefore, selection for a low frequency of reproductivemites may have produced bees that remove reproductive mite populations from capped brood.

Changes in reproduction of Varroa destructor after honey bee queens were exchanged between resistant and susceptible colonies

Results showed that reproduction of mites is suppressed by adding a queen selected for SMRD, and that a mite population recovers its reproduction when a SMRD queen is replaced by an unselected queen.

Comparison of Parasitic Mites in Russian-Hybrid and Italian Honey Bee (Hymenoptera: Apidae) Colonies across Three Different Locations in North Carolina

Beekeepers may benefit by incorporating commercially purchased mite-tolerant stocks into their existing integrated pest management programs, and statistically significant differences between the stocks in varroa mite intensity and daily mite drop are found.

Selecting honeybees for worker brood that reduces the reproduction of Varroa destructor

It is suggested that adaptation of mites to host cues, loss of resistance alleles in a small breeding population, or environmental effects present challenges to breeding for this trait.
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