Natural Selection of Honeybees Against Varroa destructor

Yves Le Conte (1) , Fanny Mondet (1)

1 AE - Abeilles et environnement

After varroa invaded Europe in the mid of twentieth century, a few populations of honeybee colonies have been found to survive the mite. The chapter describes the case of natural selection of honeybees in France against varroa. Different hypotheses have been tested to explain this phenomenon, such as resistance of the bees to the mite or to associated virus and the lower virulence of the mites. We found that the reproduction of the mite and/or the varroa sensitive hygiene are probably key factors in the survival of those bees. Other varroa resistant honeybee populations have been found in several other countries abd are also described as well as the putative mechanisms of survival. Finally, we discuss the interest of those bees for scientists and beekeepers in the framework of honeybee selection and describe the successful approaches lead by scientists for honeybee selection on a specific trait.

Domaines: Sciences du Vivant [q-bio]; Sciences de l'environnement

Yves Le Conte, Fanny Mondet. Natural Selection of Honeybees Against Varroa destructor. Beekeeping – From Science to Practice, 1st Ed., Springer International Publishing Ag, 213 p., 2017, 978-3-319-60637-8. ⟨10.1007/978-3-319-60637-8_12⟩. ⟨hal-02790490⟩