> if when varroa feed on fat bodies if it permanently reduces the amount of
royal jelly and wax young bees can produce.

Yes to reduction in jelly production.  I haven't seen any studies on wax
production.

>The thought was that bees are born with lots of fat stores

I'll assume that when you say "born" that you mean emerge as adults.  If
so, then no.  They use up the larval fat bodies during metamorphosis, and
emerge hungry.  They need to consume pollen in order to build their fat
bodies back up.
There's a difference between fat bodies and fat stores.  Fat bodies are
mainly protein stores, and serve a number of other important functions.
The extraoral digestion by varroa destroys even more than the mites
actually consume.

>which they use to feed royal jelly and make wax.
Beeswax is hydrocarbon, so I question whether the fat bodies are much
involved in its production.

>Maybe the test would be to take bees with varroa and see if they produce
less royal jelly and wax,  and if they become foragers sooner than bees
without varroa.

Yes to poorer development of the hypopharyngeal glands, and yes to earlier
foraging.

Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
530 277 4450
ScientificBeekeeping.com

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