Fig 1.
Experimental setup to monitor mite behavior towards foraging honey bees.
To see whether mites fell off bees after climbing onto them, the top of the cup holding the focal flower was covered in white paper, as was the stool on which the cup sat. The entire apparatus was underlain by a 1m by 2m sheet of white cloth.
Fig 2.
The number of bee-seconds before a honey bee forager was infested by the focal mite.
Boxplots shown for each of the three species used, and pooled data from all three species. Boxes span the first through third quartiles, and whiskers span the range of non-outlier values.
Fig 3.
Sites of initial contact between foragers and mites (n = 71), and the sites at which mites came to rest (n = 58).
Numbers in parentheses denote the number of mites observed interacting with each host body part. Data are pooled from feeder and flower observations. A: Any part of the ventral abdomen; B: Legs, above the tarsal claw; C: Ventral or lateral thorax or proximal surface of legs; D: Ventral surface of head; E: Proboscis; F: Antenna. T: Anterior dorsolateral abdomen, 1st segment; U: Intertagmal region between thorax and abdomen (“waist”); V: Central dorsal thorax; W: Intertagmal region between head and thorax (“neck”); X: Ventral abdomen; Y: Ventral thorax; Z: Dorsal trochanter or femur. The asterisk refers to the space between the 3rd and 4th tergites: the most common location for Varroa found on hive bees in past studies.