Abstract
Varroa
mite is the most destructive pest to bee colonies worldwide. In Saudi Arabia, preliminary data indicated high infestation levels in the exotic honeybee colonies; such as
Apis mellifera carnica
and
Apis mellifera ligustica
, compared to native honeybee subspecies
Apis mellifera jemenitica
, which may imply higher tolerance to
Varroasis
. In this study, fertility and reproductive rate of
Varroa
mite,
Varroa destructor
, in capped brood cells of the native honeybee subspecies were investigated and compared with an exotic honeybee subspecies,
A. m
.
carnica
. Mite fertility was almost alike (87.5% and 89.4%) in the native and craniolan colonies respectively. Similarly, results did not show significant differences in reproduction rate between both subspecies (
F
= 0.66, Pr >
F
= 0.42). Number of adult
Varroa
daughters per fertile mother mite was 2.0 and 2.1 for native and craniolan honeybee subspecies respectively. This may indicate that mechanisms of keeping low infestation rates in the native honeybee colonies are not associated with
Varroa
reproduction. Therefore, potential factors of keeping lower
Varroa
infestation rates in native honey bee subspecies should be further investigated.