headless larva

[pistolero56]

i keep finding near grown larva with their heads ate off. Anyone know why

[Joseph Clemens]

Are you sure they aren't pupae or prepupae? I have seen this happen to prepupae rarely, and to pupae most often, but I don't recall it ever happening to larvae.

[TriJim]

Like Joseph mentions - think you mean pupae- would be difficult to distinguish head end of a larva.

What does it mean? Likely hygenic behavior - bees removing infected or deformed developing bees. Some bees will uncap and remove the developing bee within 24 hours - while others require a couple days until the cell is cleared. One test for hygenic behavior in a colony is to kill purple-eye stage pupae and see how long it takes bees to recognize and clean the cells.

You might see 'grown larva with their heads ate off' with removal of chilled brood or shortage of protein, but unlikley this time of year.

Good luck and keep us informed.

[pistolero56]

lol .i did mean pupae when i done hive inspection i noticed the pupae, its nt the first time i see one every now and then. Ididnt know if it was bees doing this or maybe ants. I took pics of my queens and my boy was lookinb at queen pics and noticed the larva in background and mentioned it so i looked and sure enough so while i was typing i guess larva was on my mind thanks for input

[AR Beekeeper]

You often see the heads removed on pupae when the bees are removing pupae that have varroa developing in their cells.