From: Anthony Morgan <Anthony@iet.hist.no>
Organization: Sør-Trøndelag University College
Date: Mon, 05 Feb 2001 12:36:50 +0100
To: BiologicalBeekeeping@yahoogroups.com
Subject:
Re: V. mite control

 

> > "The two V. destructor haplotypes found to co-exist in the U.S. are
> > expected to interbreed. This ability is a concern and an unknown."

>
> Is this statement strictly correct? Correct me if I'm wrong, but I
> thought there were two Varroas but only one 'destructor'.

 

Heavily snipped and edited commenications from Denis Anderson, CSIRO
canberra:

In all, 18 different haplotypes were detected among the mites infesting
Apis cerana in Asia. These resolved into two main groups which were
determined to be different species. That is V. jacobsoni and the newly
named V. destructor.

A study of V. mites on Apis mellifera worldwide showed only 2
haplotypes. One was the Korea haplotype (that naturally infests Apis
cerana in Korea), and the other was the Japan/Thailand haplotype (that
naturally infests Apis cerana in Japan and Korea).
Both these haplotypes that occur on Apis mellifera worldwide are not
Varroa jacobsoni but Varroa destructor!

Th Korea haplotype was identified on A. mellifera in Europe, the Middle
East, Africa, Asia, and the Americas. The less common Japan/Thailand
haplotype was identified on A. mellifera in Japan, Thailand and the
Americas.
----------------------------------------

Hence there are two haplotypes of V. destructor in "the Americas" that
could potentially interbreed. What the distributions of the two types
are is unclear as is the expected result of any interbreeding.

Denis Anderson's study on genetic variation in Varroa was based upon
variation in one mitochrondrial gene, the mtDNA cyctochrome oxydase I
gene (mtDNA CO-I gene).The haplotypes
within the 2 groups were determined to be different species based on
phenotypic, genotypic and behavioural differences, whereas the
haplotypes within a species were distinguished by genotypic differences.

cheers Tony
-----------------------------------------
Anthony N Morgan,
Førsteamanuensis
Institutt for Elektroteknikk
Høgskolen i Sør-Trøndelag
N-7005 Trondheim, Norway
anthony@iet.hist.no
Tlf. 73 55 96 04
Fax. 73 55 95 81