Editing Varroa destructor (section)

==Host interactions==
[[File:Varroa mite between segments1.png|thumb|Scanning electron microscope image of Varroa mite wedged between bee segments indicated by white arrow.]]
[[File:Varroa mite between segments2.png|thumb|Close-up scanning electron microscope image of Varroa mite wedged between bee segments.]]
Adult mites feed on both adult bees and bee larvae by sucking on the [[fat body]], an insect organ that stores glycogen and triglycerides with tissue abundant under epidermis and the surrounding internal body cavity.<ref name="vanEngelsdorp 1792–1801"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Nekoei |first1=Shahin |last2=Rezvan |first2=Mahsa |last3=Khamesipour |first3=Faham |last4=Mayack |first4=Christopher |last5=Molento |first5=Marcelo Beltrão |last6=Revainera |first6=Pablo Damián |title=A systematic review of honey bee ( Apis mellifera , Linnaeus , 1758) infections and available treatment options |journal=Veterinary Medicine and Science |date=July 2023 |volume=9 |issue=4 |pages=1848–1860 |doi=10.1002/vms3.1194|pmid=37335585 |doi-access=free |pmc=10357250 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Arrese |first1=Estela L. |last2=Soulages |first2=Jose L. |title=Insect Fat Body: Energy, Metabolism, and Regulation |journal=Annual Review of Entomology |date=1 January 2010 |volume=55 |issue=1 |pages=207–225 |doi=10.1146/annurev-ento-112408-085356|pmid=19725772 |quote=The fat body is a relatively large organ distributed throughout the insect body, preferentially underneath the integument and surrounding the gut and reproductive organs|pmc=3075550 }}</ref> As the fat body is crucial for many bodily functions such as hormone and energy regulation, immunity, and pesticide detoxification, the mite's consumption of the fat body weakens both the adult bee and the larva. Feeding on fat body cells significantly decreases the weight of both the immature and adult bee. Infested adult worker bees have a shorter lifespan than ordinary worker bees, and they furthermore tend to be absent from the colony far more than ordinary bees, which could be due to their reduced ability to navigate or regulate their energy for flight.<ref name="Rosenkranz"/><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kralj |first1=Jasna |last2=Fuchs |first2=Stefan |title=Parasitic Varroa destructor mites influence flight duration and homing ability of infested Apis mellifera foragers |journal=Apidologie |date=September 2006 |volume=37 |issue=5 |pages=577–587 |doi=10.1051/apido:2006040|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kralj |first1=Jasna |last2=Brockmann |first2=Axel |last3=Fuchs |first3=Stefan |last4=Tautz |first4=Jürgen |title=The parasitic mite Varroa destructor affects non-associative learning in honey bee foragers, Apis mellifera L. |journal=Journal of Comparative Physiology A |date=19 February 2007 |volume=193 |issue=3 |pages=363–370 |doi=10.1007/s00359-006-0192-8|pmid=17123087 |s2cid=1247411 }}</ref> Infested bees are more likely to wander into other hives and further increase spread. Bees will occasionally drift into other nearby hives, but this rate is higher for Varroa infested bees.<ref name="FloridaIFAS"/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Schmid-Hempel |first1=Paul |title=Parasites in social insects |date=1998 |publisher=Princeton Univ. Press |location=Princeton, NJ |isbn=9780691059242}}</ref>

Adult mites live and feed under the abdominal plates of adult bees primarily on the underside of the abdominal region on the left side of the bee. Adult mites are more often identified as present in the hive when on top of the adult bee on the thorax, but mites in this location are likely not feeding, but rather attempting to transfer to another bee.<ref name="vanEngelsdorp 1792–1801"/>

Varroa mites have been found on flowers visited by worker bees, which may be a means by which phoretic mites spread short distances when other bees, including from other hives, visit.<ref>{{cite web |title=Varroa mites « Bee Aware |url=https://beeaware.org.au/archive-pest/varroa-mites/ |website=beeaware.org.au |access-date=27 October 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Peck |first1=David T. |last2=Smith |first2=Michael L. |last3=Seeley |first3=Thomas D. |title=Varroa destructor Mites Can Nimbly Climb from Flowers onto Foraging Honey Bees |journal=PLOS ONE |date=12 December 2016 |volume=11 |issue=12 |pages=e0167798 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0167798|pmid=27942015 |pmc=5152851 |bibcode=2016PLoSO..1167798P |doi-access=free }}</ref> They have also been found on larvae of some wasp species, such as ''[[Vespula vulgaris]]'', and flower-feeding insects such as the [[bumblebee]], ''[[Bombus pensylvanicus]]'', the [[Scarabaeidae|scarab beetle]], ''[[Phanaeus vindex]]'', and the [[flower-fly]], ''[[Palpada vinetorum]]''. There have not been any indications Varroa mites are able to complete their life cycle on these insects, but instead they become distributed to other areas while a mite is still alive on these insects.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Peter G. Kevan |author2=Terence M. Laverty |author3=Harold A. Denmark |name-list-style=amp |year=1990 |title=Association of ''Varroa jacobsoni'' with organisms other than honey bees and implications for its dispersal |journal=Bee World |volume=71 |issue=3 |pages=119–121|doi=10.1080/0005772X.1990.11099048 }}</ref>