-Worker and queen honey bees were fed individually with Nosema apis spores in sucrose solution and then returned to cages containing several hundred of their worker bee nestmates. After 3 to 7 days, the workers and queens that had been fed spores were sacrificed. Worker and queen ventriculi were removed and examined for spores by light microscopy, and DNA was extracted. The DNA was subjected to amplification with polymerase chain reaction, using primer sequences specific to N. apis DNA. The PCR analysis was more sensitive than examination for spores by light microscopy, in detecting N. apis infection. Worker bees and queen bees were infected at similar rates by the inoculation procedure.Apis mellifera / Nosema apis / PCR / queen / worker

The proportion of Varroa jacobsoni Oudemans that were alive and mobile when they fell from honey bees, Apis mellifera L., in hives was measured during a 20-wk period to determine the potential use of systems that prevent these mites from returning to the bees. Traps designed to discriminate between the live, fallen mites and those that are dead or immobile were used on hive bottom boards. A large fraction of the fallen mites was alive when acaricide was not in use and also when fluvalinate or coumaphos treatments were in the hives. The live proportion of mitefall increased during very hot weather. The proportion of mitefall that was alive was higher at the rear and sides of the hive compared with that falling from center frames near the hive entrance. More sclerotized than callow mites were alive when they fell. A screen-covered trap that covers the entire hive bottom board requires a sticky barrier to retain all live mites. This trap or another method that prevents fallen, viable mites from returning to the hive is recommended as a part of an integrated control program. It also may slow the development of acaricide resistance in V. jacobsoni and allow the substitution of less hazardous chemicals for the acaricides currently in use.

No abstract

-The abdomens of honey bee queens and semen from drone bees were analyzed by visible and near-infrared spectroscopy. Mated honey bee queens could be distinguished from virgin queens by their absorption spectra with 100% accuracy. Spectra of semen showed that classifications of queens were likely influenced by the presence or absence of semen in the queen spermathecae. However, physiological or morphological changes that occur in the queens after mating probably influenced the classifications also.Apis mellifera / drone semen / mating / queen bee / spectroscopy