Family VARROIDAE Delfinado & Baker, 1974

Museums

Regional Maps

• Varroidae Delfinado, M.D. & Baker, E.W. 1974. Varroidae, a new family of mites on honey bees (Mesostigmata: Acarina). Journal of the Washington Academy of Sciences 64: 4-10.
• Uronyssidae Halliday, R.B. 2006. New taxa of mites associated with Australian termites (Acari: Mesostigmata). International Journal of Acarology 32: 27-38.

Introduction

The Varroidae is a small family of parasitic mites that attack bees and other social insects. According to the taxonomic concept of Casanueva (1993) and Lindquist et al. (2009), the family includes six genera, some of which have previously been placed in the family Laelapidae. Two of the genera include dangerous parasites of the honeybee, and both have recently been revised. Anderson & Trueman (2000) showed that the genus Varroa includes at least four species and not one as previously believed, and Anderson & Morgan (2007) used molecular data to revise the genus Tropilaelaps. Neither of these genera is established in mainland Australia. Two species of Urozercon have been collected from termite nests (Halliday 2006).

Information about records of Varroa jacobsoni in Queensland is provided in the entry for that species.

General References

Anderson, D. & Trueman, J.W.H. 2000. Varroa jacobsoni (Acari: Varroidae) is more than one species. Experimental and Applied Acarology 24: 165-189

Anderson, D.L. & Morgan, M.J. 2007. Genetic and morphological variation of bee-parasitic Tropilaelaps mites (Acari: Laelapidae): new and re-defined species. Experimental and Applied Acarology 43: 1–24

Casanueva, M.E. 1993. Phylogenetic studies of the free-living and arthropod associated Laelapidae (Acari: Mesostigmata). Gayana Zoologia, Concepcion 57: 21-46

Halliday, R.B. 2006. New taxa of mites associated with Australian termites (Acari: Mesostigmata). International Journal of Acarology 32: 27-38

Lindquist, E.E., Krantz, G.W. & Walter, D.E. 2009. Order Mesostigmata. pp.124-232 in Krantz, G.W. & Walter, D.E. (eds). A Manual of Acarology. Lubbock, Texas : Texas Tech University Press Third edition, 807 pp.

History of changes