>> SMR bees are able
>> to detect, uncap, and remove foundress varroa mites that are
>> laying eggs and reproducing in cells.
>
> Is there any word on how 'grooming' links with this?  Do bees deliberately
> injure foundresses as they are exposed, or is this an activity restricted
> to
> bees discovering phoretic mites (mites hitchhiking on adults).

I did not hear anything indicating that the bees do more than release the
mite from the cell.  Grooming was discussed separately, by Rob Currie, and
seems to be somewhat dependant on temperature and humidity, along with
genetic factors, (I assume).

> Such
> grooming seems to be an important mechanism of resistance in bees selected
> by Alois Wallner in Austria in the 1980s (he called it 'Varroa Killing
> Factor'), and something similar was reported to be present in Russians too
> in one of the papers out of Baton Rouge.  Is this grooming (biting) just
> another manifestation of the same underlying mechanism, or a separate one?

I did not hear this topic discussed, although we have been aware of
Wallner's work for a very long time.

In that regard, has anyone any idea what is happening with Jack Griffes' HIP
program?  His pages at http://griffes.tripod.com/HIP1.html don't seem to
have been updated for years, now.  If any program should have worked, I
would have thought that his should.

> Did anyone discuss the differences between drone and worker brood?  Most
> of
> the research seems focussed on worker brood - and that could be enough of
> course as drones are only raised seasonally - but is there any indication
> that the same resistance mechanisms function during mite reproduction in
> drone brood?

That was not discussed, at least anywhere I was present.

allen

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