About the Authors

Lina De Smet

Contributed equally to this work with: Lina De Smet, Fani Hatjina

lina.desmet@ugent.be

Affiliation Laboratory of Molecular Entomology and Bee Pathology, Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

Fani Hatjina

Contributed equally to this work with: Lina De Smet, Fani Hatjina

Affiliation Division of Apiculture, Institute of Animal Science, Hellenic Agricultural Organisation ‘DEMETER’, Nea Moudania, Greece

Pavlos Ioannidis

Affiliation Division of Apiculture, Institute of Animal Science, Hellenic Agricultural Organisation ‘DEMETER’, Nea Moudania, Greece

Anna Hamamtzoglou

Affiliation Division of Apiculture, Institute of Animal Science, Hellenic Agricultural Organisation ‘DEMETER’, Nea Moudania, Greece

Karel Schoonvaere

Affiliation Laboratory of Molecular Entomology and Bee Pathology, Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

Frédéric Francis

Affiliation Department of Functional and Evolutionary Entomology, Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech, University of Liège, Liège, Belgium

Ivan Meeus

Affiliation Department of Crop Protection, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

Guy Smagghe

Affiliation Department of Crop Protection, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

Dirk C. de Graaf

Affiliation Laboratory of Molecular Entomology and Bee Pathology, Faculty of Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

Competing Interests

Co-author Prof. Guy Smagghe is a PLOS ONE Editorial Board member. This does not alter the authors’ adherence to all PLOS ONE policies on sharing data and samples.

Author Contributions

Conceptualization: LDS FH FF IM GS DdG. Data curation: LDS FH. Formal analysis: LDS FH. Funding acquisition: DdG FH. Investigation: LDS FH PI AH KS. Methodology: LDS FH DdG. Project administration: FH DdG. Resources: FH PI AH DdG. Supervision: DdG FH GS FF. Validation: FH DdG. Visualization: LDS FH. Writing – original draft: LDS FH. Writing – review & editing: LDS FF GS IM DdG KS.