The situation in A cerana appears to be a bit more complex to me,
although I, as Pete am stuck with extrapolating from published papers.

A cerana does indeed pay attention to infested drone brood, and
thickens the cappings, thus entombing any mites that substantially
weaken the infected drone pupa.

I discussed the kairomonal component with Dr Denis Anderson--he feels
that there is a constant evolutionary battle between various strains
of A cerana and varroa.

Recent findings by Barbara Locke and Ingemar Fries from Gottland
support the above.

Grooming is also a behavior that controls the mite, as is a shorter
duration of drone brood production.

Re VSH, it appears that it depends upon the infected pupa emitting a
pheromonal signal to the removal bees that it is suffering harm from
the infestation (such as a virus infection), rather than merely being
parasitized.

Very complex indeed.

Randy Oliver

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