Foreign Pests as Potential Threats to North American Apiculture: Tropilaelaps mercedesae, Euvarroa spp, Vespa mandarinia, and Vespa velutina.

Honey bees face a broad range of threats globally. Many of these threats originate outside of North America because honey bees are an introduced species. Invasive pests are among the most widely distributed, damaging, and economically costly honey bee hive associates.

feeds primarily on honey bee fat body tissue and not hemolymph.

The parasitic mite is the greatest single driver of the global honey bee health decline. Better understanding of the association of this parasite and its host is critical to developing sustainable management practices. Our work shows that this parasite is not consuming hemolymph, as has been the accepted view, but damages host bees by consuming fat body, a tissue roughly analogous to the mammalian liver.

Tropilaelaps mite: an emerging threat to European honey bee.

The risk of transmission of honey bee parasites has increased substantially as a result of trade globalization and technical developments in transportation efficacy. Great concern over honey bee decline has accelerated research on newly emerging bee pests and parasites. These organisms are likely to emerge from Asia as it is the only region where all 10 honey bee species co-occur.