A scientific note on quantitative diagnosis of small hive beetles, Aethina tumida, in the field

• Published in: Apidologie Vol. 39; no. 5; pp. 564 - 565
• Main Authors: Schäfer, Marc O., Pettis, Jeff S., Ritter, Wolfgang, Neumann, Peter
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Netherlands 01.09.2008; EDP Sciences; Springer Verlag
• Subjects: Aethina tumida; Agricultural sciences; Animal biology; Animal production studies; Animal productions; Apiculture; Biodiversity; Biological and medical sciences; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Ecology, environment; Entomology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Insecta; Invertebrate Zoology; Invertebrates; Life Sciences; Scientific Note; Terrestrial animal productions; diagnosis; infestation level; honeybee; small hive beetle; Entomopathogen; Coleoptera; Insecta; Apidae; Diagnosis (taxonomy); Parasite; Aethina tumida; Nitidulidae; Apis mellifera; Hive; Apoidea; Arthropoda; Hymenoptera; Invertebrata; Infestation; Aculeata; Quantitative analysis
• ISSN: 0044-8435; 1297-9678
• DOI: 10.1051/apido:2008038

The small hive beetle, Aethina tumida, (= SHB) can cause considerable damage to apiculture. Regions with more damage have higher SHB population levels (Spiewok et al., 2007), creating demand for quantitative diagnosis. Several methods have been suggested (cf. Ellis, 2005a, b), but their applications are labour intensive (e.g. visual colony screenings: Spiewok et al., 2007; Neumann and Hoffmann, 2008). Here, we develop a less labour-intensive method for quantitative SHB diagnosis in field colonies.