A scientific note on the fungus Beauveria bassiana infecting Varroa destructor in worker brood cells in honey bee hives

摘要

We report on the isolation of the mitosporic fungus Beauveria bassiana from varroa mites, Varroa destructor, in capped worker brood cells of honey bees, Apis mellifera. To our knowledge, this is the first record of B. bassiana from mites collected from bee brood. The brood chamber is the area of the hive where bees maintain high constant temperatures of 33-36 °C (Le Conte et al., 1990). An en-tomopathogenic fungus may be less efficacious because of poor germination at the high temperatures inside brood cells.