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Photo B. A worker honey
bee with deformed wings. |
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Origins and Distribution of V. destructor
V. destructor is an obligate parasite of cavity-dwelling
Apis bees. It cannot reproduce on yellow jackets, wasps, bumblebees
or any other species. Early reports of this mite on the western
honey bee inaccurately identified it as V. jacobsoni Oudemans,
which exists in a sustainable association with the eastern honey
bee, A. cerana. In 2000, the genus Varroa was reported
to consist of at least two species, V. jacobsoni (which
infects A. cerana, but not A. mellifera) and V.
destructor (which infects both A. cerana and A.
mellifera). Consequently, literature reporting on V. jacobsoni
and the western honey bee prior to that time actually refers to
V. destructor.
The association of V. destructor with the western honey
bee reportedly originated in the 1950s, when mites transferred to
A. mellifera colonies introduced to the home range of A.
cerana. Subsequently, V. destructor has established
a nearly cosmopolitan distribution with respect to its new host,
with Australia being the only mite-free continent. V. destructor
was discovered in the U.S. in 1987. Due to the highly mobile nature
of both the honey bee and the U.S. beekeeping industry, V. destructor
quickly became endemic, and it can now be found in every state in
the continental U.S.
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