THE 1ST GONOCYCLE OF THE PARASITIC MITE (VARROA-JACOBSONI) IN RELATION TO PREIMAGINAL DEVELOPMENT OF ITS HOST, THE HONEY-BEE (APIS-MELLIFERA-CARNICA)

Initiation of oocyte development in Varroa jacobsoni depends on whether the female enters the brood cell of Apis mellifera before operculation and subsequently sucks hemolymph from a late fifth instar bee larva. Females inserted into the brood 24 h after cell capping, during the spinning phase of the bee larva, do not initiate oocyte development. All stages of mite vitellogenesis and embryogenesis which are described here develop in a close temporal relation to the host stages. A timetable of the first gonocycle is given showing its duration in worker and drone host cells. About 70 h after capping of the bee brood cell, the first egg is laid containing a nearly completed protonymph that hatches within the next day.