> That assumption has been strongly challenged by Sammy Ramsey's work that shows that in fact varroa are feeding on fat body. Also the observation that the predigestion of tissue at the wound site is a likely cause of the viral spread.  So artificially removing hemolymph and then observing a spike in viral replication is questionable. 

Looking over the abstract of Ramsey's 2016 work, he fed varroa in vitro, which does not necessarily reflect in vivo feeding. Quote: "These mites were then placed in queen rearing cups lined with beeswax and fed fat body, hemolymph, or a combination of the two through an artificial membrane." Also, he has not published the results of his work, so one must regard the results as tentative.

PLB

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