A scientific note on a new pest for European honeybees: first report of small hive beetle Aethina tumida, (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) in Italy

Vincenzo Palmeri , Giuseppe Scirtò , Antonino Malacrinò , Francesca Laudani , Orlando Campolo

The small hive beetle (SHB), Aethina tumida Murray (Coleoptera Nitidulidae), is an important pest of honeybees in many parts of the world. The beetle is native to sub-Saharan Africa and was unintentionally introduced into USA (1996), Australia (2001) and in Canada (2002) (Ellis and Munn, 2005; Neumann and Ellis 2008). In Europe the SHB was discovered in 2005 in a consignment of queens imported from Texas (USA) into Portugal and destroyed by the Portuguese National Veterinarian Services (Murilhas, 2005). Since then, Europe remained free from this pest.

Mots clés: small hive beetle; symbiont; biological; invasion; honeybee

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]

Vincenzo Palmeri, Giuseppe Scirtò, Antonino Malacrinò, Francesca Laudani, Orlando Campolo. A scientific note on a new pest for European honeybees: first report of small hive beetle Aethina tumida, (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) in Italy. Apidologie, 2015, 46 (4), pp.527-529. ⟨10.1007/s13592-014-0343-9⟩. ⟨hal-01284461⟩