Meikle William G, Holst Niels, Cook Steven C, Patt Joseph M
Carl Hayden Bee Research Center, United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service, Tucson, AZ 85719.
Department of Agroecology, Aarhus University, Denmark.
J Econ Entomol. 2015 Jun;108(3):887-93. doi: 10.1093/jee/tov101. Epub 2015 May 4.
Experiments were conducted to examine how several key factors affect population growth of the small hive beetle, Aethina tumida Murray (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae). Laboratory experiments were conducted to examine effects of food quantity and temperature on reproduction of cohorts of young A. tumida adults (1:1 sex ratio) housed in experimental arenas. Daily numbers and total mass of larvae exiting arenas were highly variable within treatment. Either one or two cohorts of larvae were observed exiting the arenas. Food quantity, either 10 g or 20 g, did not significantly affect the number of larvae exiting arenas at 32°C, but did at 28°C; arenas provided 20 g food produced significantly more larvae than arenas provided 10 g. Temperature did not affect the total mass of larvae provided 10 g food, but did affect larval mass provided 20 g; beetles kept at 28°C produced more larval mass than at 32°C. Field experiments were conducted to examine A. tumida reproductive success in full strength bee colonies. Beetles were introduced into hives as egg-infested frames and as adults, and some bee colonies were artificially weakened through removal of sealed brood. Efforts were unsuccessful; no larvae were observed exiting from, or during the inspection of, any hives. Possible reasons for these results are discussed. The variability observed in A. tumida reproduction even in controlled laboratory conditions and the difficulty in causing beetle infestations in field experiments involving full colonies suggest that accurately forecasting the A. tumida severity in such colonies will be difficult.
进行了实验以研究几个关键因素如何影响小蜂螨（Aethina tumida Murray，鞘翅目：露尾甲科）的种群增长。进行了实验室实验，以研究食物量和温度对饲养在实验场地中的年轻小蜂螨成虫（雌雄比例为1:1）群体繁殖的影响。处理组内每天离开场地的幼虫数量和总质量变化很大。观察到有一或两个幼虫群体离开场地。食物量为10克或20克时，在32°C下对离开场地的幼虫数量没有显著影响，但在28°C时有显著影响；提供20克食物的场地产生的幼虫明显多于提供10克食物的场地。温度对提供10克食物时幼虫的总质量没有影响，但对提供20克食物时的幼虫质量有影响；饲养在28°C的甲虫产生的幼虫质量比在32°C时更多。进行了田间实验，以研究小蜂螨在强壮蜂群中的繁殖成功率。将甲虫作为感染卵的巢脾和成虫引入蜂箱，并且通过移除封盖子脾人为削弱了一些蜂群。但实验未成功；在任何蜂箱中检查时，都未观察到有幼虫离开或在检查期间出现幼虫。讨论了这些结果可能的原因。即使在受控的实验室条件下，小蜂螨繁殖中也观察到了变异性，并且在涉及整个蜂群的田间实验中难以造成甲虫侵染，这表明准确预测此类蜂群中小蜂螨的严重程度将很困难。
