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- Decreased flight performance and sperm production in drones of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) slightly infested by Varroa destructor mites during pupal development
- Pedro Duay1,2, David De Jong2 and Wolf Engels1
- 1Zoologisches Institut, LS Entwicklungsphysiologie, Auf der Morgenstelle 28,
- D-72076 Tübingen, Germany
- 2Department of Genetics, Medical Faculty, University of São Paulo,
- 14049-900 Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil
- Corresponding author: W. Engels
- E-mail: wolf.engels@uni-tuebingen.de
- Genet. Mol. Res. 1 (3): 227-232 (2002)
- Received August 20, 2002
- Published September 18,2002
ABSTRACT. We developed a bioassay to measure the flying power of drone, in order to determine which drones could reach a drone congregation area. A wind tunnel was used to test unparasitized drones and drones slightly parasitized by one or two mites during pupal development, and counts were made of the number of spermatozoa that they produced. Drones parasitized with one mite flew as long as control drones (  = 6’55” and 6’48”, respectively, P = 0.512); however, those that had been infested by two mites flew significantly less ( = 2’16”, P<0.001). There was a significant positive correlation (P<0.01) between flight duration and the number of spermatozoa per drone in control group (r = 0.53), and in both the one mite (r = 0.43) and two mite (r = 0.54) groups. Drones infested during development with one or two mites produced 24 and 45% fewer sperm, respectively.
Key words: Apis mellifera, Drone flying power, Sperm production, Pupal infestation, Varroa destructor
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