Varroa Does Not Feed on Hemolymph.

[Hivemaker.]

A very interesting research presentation by Samuel Ramsey.
Well worth listening to... questions and answers at the end are also interesting.

The vast majority of mites on bees are under their belly feeding on fat body, which is broken down by enzymes, they are not classed as truly phoretic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DK2Xi0ST4rA&t=2s

 

[mbc]

Top notch, thanks for sharing

 

[bontbee]

Haven't got to the end of the questions, yet, but fascinating presentation. Lots of new info - for me at least. Excellent, thanks HM

 

[Walrus]

Thanks hivemaker; really interesting.

Randy Oliver has some good stuff on fat bees here:
http://scientificbeekeeping.com/fat-bees-part-1/

 

[Michael Palmer]

I’ve Seen Sammy a number of times. The kid is brilliant. His research has explained what’s really happening to our bees. He assigned 9 functions to fat bodies. One being immune system support. No fat bodies, no resistance to disease.

 

[Erichalfbee]

I’ve Seen Sammy a number of times. The kid is brilliant. His research has explained what’s really happening to our bees. He assigned 9 functions to fat bodies. One being immune system support. No fat bodies, no resistance to disease.

Yep.
His research has come a long way since that first presentation. It’s fascinating stuff and wonderful that the research is being done. There is so much to learn about this little insect and its foe

 

[Repwoc]

Varroa destructor feeds primarily on honey bee fat body tissue and not hemolymph, Samuel Ramsey et al, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on January 29, 2019.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Varroa destructor feeds primarily on honey bee fat body tissue and not hemolymph, Samuel Ramsey et al, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on January 29, 2019.

That is interesting to read, thank you for posting the new research paper, Paul.