Acarapis woodi
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| Honey bee tracheal mite | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Acarapis woodi (Rennie, 1921) |
Acarapis woodi (honey bee tracheal mite) is a mite that is an internal parasite of honey bees. Tracheal mites are related to spiders and have eight legs. Acarapis woodi live and reproduce in the tracheal tubes of the bees. The female mite attaches between five to ten eggs to the tracheal walls, where the larvae hatch and develop in 2 - 3 weeks to adult mites. The mites parasitize young bees up to two weeks old through the tracheal tube openings. There they pierce the tracheal tube walls with their mouthparts and feed on the haemolymph of the bees. More than a hundred mites can populate the trachea and weaken the bees. The mites are very small, generally under 175 micrometres, and can only be seen and identified under a microscope.
Other mites that are similar in appearance are Acarapis externus, and Acarapis dorsalis.
[edit] References
- Tracheal mites Systematic Entomology Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture
- Denmark, H.A.; Cromroy, H.L.; Sanford, Malcolm T. Honey bee tracheal mite University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences; Nov 2000, accessed Dec 2007
