Note: Recording of Some Beetles in Honey Bee Colonies

Abstract

Honey bees are very valuable to human. These social insects contribute in the pollination of many crops. Also, the products from honey bee colonies have many nutritional and medicinal benefits. Thus, keeping honey bees are very valuable and can be considered as source of income to many families. There are many diseases and pests that attack honey bee colonies. The pests attack bee colonies include: hornets, wax moths, bee-eater birds, and beetles. Such challenges can impact the survival and productivity of honey bee colonies. In this study, some beetle species belong to Fam. Nitidulidae, Dermestidae and Mycetophagidae were detected in honey bee colonies in Egypt, during spring. Despite the presence of many beetle species in the agricultural environment, only few species preferred the invasion of the colonies for feeding. These beetles do not attack stages of honey bees. They only feed on stored pollen or bee bread, especially those fallen on the bottom of the beehives. This is an alarm to follow the feeding behavior and distribution of these beetles. These beetles’ species can be considered as potential pests to weak honey bee colonies, housed in old or damaged beehives. The presence of large numbers of these beetles in weak colonies may disturb the activities of the bees and may passively impact the survival of the colonies. Listing these beetles is very important to better understanding the interaction between honey bees and beetles. On the other side, small hive beetles were not detected in the colonies. These beetles are currently one of the major problems facing honey bees in different parts of the world. This study confirms the absence of small hive beetles from Egypt.

Present and future perspectives of using biological control agents against pests of honey bees

“…The small hives beetle (SHB) Aethina tumida Murray (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) was recorded in some countries including the UK, USA, Italy, Sudan, and Korea (El-Niweiri et al 2008;Palmeri et al 2015 andNeumann et al 2016), but not in Egypt (Hassan andAbou-Shaara et al 2018). SHB invades honey bee colonies and its larvae feed on stored food and wax causing damages to combs.…”

Modeling the Invasion of the Large Hive Beetle, Oplostomusfuligineus, into North Africa and South Europe under a Changing Climate

“…In fact, LHB has not been detected so far in Europe and some North African countries. A study in Egypt as an example showed the presence of some nitidulid beetles that can attack honeybee colonies without any detection to Large Hive Beetles [ 32 ].…”

“…Today, the survival and productivity of honeybee colonies can be affected by several pests, including some beetle species. The major problem for honeybee colonies results from attacks by the Small Hive Beetle Aethina tumida Murray (Family: Nitidulidae), which can invade honeybee colonies to feed on stored pollen [ 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 ]. Another common beetle pest for beekeeping is the Large Hive Beetle (LHB).…”