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The mite Varroa destructor is the most important parasite of honey bees and a key threat for apiculture worldwide. These mites are obligatory ectoparasites that breed exclusively inside the capped cells of bee hives where bees care their larvae. Once within the cell the mites eat the food that nurse bees left for the larvae and also larvae fluids. Adult mites emerge from these cells and crawl on other bees in the colony, that spread them over the hive and also can carry the mites outside.

The attack by V. destructor is highly lethal, because of its direct consumption of larvae food and tissues and also because the mite is a vector of other pathogens, like the Deformed Wing Virus (DWV). In many temperate regions, human-kept bee hives infested by V. destructor collapse in 3-4 years if left untreated.

Nevertheless, honey bee colonies in the wild endure the infestations in many parts of the world. One of the hypothesis for such tolerance is swarming, a natural split of the colony when at least one queen and part of the worker bees leave the hive and travle to set a colony elsewhere.

• Diao, Q. and Hou, C., 2018. Does nonreproductive swarming adapt to pathogens?. PLoS pathogens, 14(1), p.e1006742.
• Loftus, J.C., Smith, M.L. and Seeley, T.D., 2016. How honey bee colonies survive in the wild: testing the importance of small nests and frequent swarming. PloS one, 11(3), p.e0150362.
• Rosenkranz, P., Aumeier, P. and Ziegelmann, B., 2010. Biology and control of Varroa destructor. Journal of invertebrate pathology, 103, S96-S119. pdf