Dynamics of honey bee colony death and its implications for Varroa destructor mite transmission using observation hives

• Published in: Apidologie Vol. 54; no. 1; p. 13
• Main Authors: Smith, Michael L., Peck, David T.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Paris Springer Paris 01.02.2023; Springer Nature B.V; Springer Verlag
• Subjects: adulthood; adults; Apis mellifera; Bees; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Colonies; Death; decline; Disease transmission; Drones; Entomology; evolution; Honey; honey bee colonies; honey bees; Life cycles; Life Sciences; Mites; Mortality; Original Article; parasitic mites; Populations; Queenless; reproduction; Sociometry; Survival; Varroa destructor; Virulence; Workers (insect caste); colony death; Sociometry; colony decline; Apis mellifera; Varroa destructor
• ISSN: 0044-8435; 1297-9678
• DOI: 10.1007/s13592-023-00991-4

Organisms live within cycles of birth, growth, and reproduction, but life cycles also include decline and death. Here, we focus on the process of colony decline and death in “hopelessly queenless” honey bee colonies ( Apis mellifera ). In addition, we tracked the parasitic mite, Varroa destructor , to understand how mite populations change during colony decline, and the implications of colony decline on mite transmission. To address these knowledge gaps, we established four hopelessly queenless colonies in observation hives and tracked their bee and mite populations until death. Hopelessly queenless colonies persisted for 2–3 months (86 ± 19 days), with a long-tailed survival distribution (50% of bees dead by day 25; 95% by day 74). In two of the four colonies, the mites outlived the bees by up to 48 h; in one colony the bees outlived the mites by 13 days; in one colony the bees and mites died simultaneously. Though we did not observe robbing in our study, colonies with fewer than 200 bees still harbored mites that could have infested robber bees. All colonies attempted to rear worker-laid drones, though survival rates for the drones were low (3.0 ± 2.1% of worker-laid drone brood were estimated to reach adulthood). Colonies did, however, maintain adult drones until colony death, despite the experiment running from September through December (past the date of typical drone eviction). This work shows that declining colonies are a viable mechanism for horizontal mite transfer in both managed and wild colonies, with potential implications for the evolution of mite virulence.