Varroa destructor is arguably the most important threat to Apis mellifera honey bees. Despite the recentness of the invasion of Varroa, A. mellifera colonies naturally resistant to the mite are being observed in a growing number of populations across Europe, South Africa and Brazil. Appearing in concert with this resistance is an increase in the ability of workers to detect mite-infested cells, which is closely associated with the recapping of such cells. However, many non-infested cells are also uncapped and then recapped which would appear to be a waste of time and energy. In this study we looked at the spatial patterns of recapping and its association with Varroa infestation to understand in what way the uncapping of non-infested cells occurs. We found that recapping occurred in clusters consisting of infested cells and their surrounding non-infested cells. This helped explain our finding that a significant positive correlation existed between levels of recapped infested and non-infested cells. Furthermore, we found that bees responded to an artificial increase in the mite infestation level by increasing their recapping behavior. We confirmed that the recapped area of non-infested cells was significantly smaller, relative to the holes made in the infested cells. Given these findings we propose that recapping behavior is stimulated either by a diffuse signal emanating from the infested cell or that cursory checks are conducted in the vicinity of an infested cell.

Varroa destructor可以说是对Apis mellifera蜜蜂最重要的威胁。尽管最近入侵了 Varroa，A. mellifera在欧洲、南非和巴西越来越多的人群中观察到对螨具有天然抗性的菌落。与这种抗性同时出现的是工人检测螨虫感染细胞的能力增加，这与这些细胞的重新盖帽密切相关。然而，许多未感染的细胞也会被打开然后重新盖上，这似乎是在浪费时间和精力。在这项研究中，我们研究了重新盖帽的空间模式及其与瓦螨感染的关联，以了解未感染细胞的脱帽是如何发生的。我们发现，在由受感染细胞及其周围未受感染细胞组成的簇中发生了重新加盖。这有助于解释我们的发现，即重新加盖的感染和未感染细胞的水平之间存在显着的正相关。此外，我们发现蜜蜂通过增加它们的重新捕捉行为来对螨虫感染水平的人为增加做出反应。我们证实，相对于受侵染细胞中的孔，未受侵染细胞的重盖区域明显更小。鉴于这些发现，我们建议通过从受感染细胞发出的扩散信号或在受感染细胞附近进行粗略检查来刺激重述行为。相对于在受感染细胞中形成的孔。鉴于这些发现，我们建议通过从受感染细胞发出的扩散信号或在受感染细胞附近进行粗略检查来刺激重述行为。相对于在受感染细胞中形成的孔。鉴于这些发现，我们建议通过从受感染细胞发出的扩散信号或在受感染细胞附近进行粗略检查来刺激重述行为。