Hi all
I have been looking into claims that some populations of European honey bees can survive despite varroa due to "rapid evolution by natural selection." This is refuted by Jacques J. M. van Alphen and BartJan Fernhout.  see: PeerJ Preprints  https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.27938v1 

They write, in part:

> Oddie et al. claimed that parallel evolution in four European populations of honeybees has resulted in a not previously reported behavioural defense mechanism of the bees against the parasitic mite Varroa destructor, the ability of uncapping/recapping to reduce mite reproductive success. 

> Their study does not provide the data to support this claim, it does not consider a more plausible alternative interpretation of the results (the reduced mite reproduction through Varroa Sensitive Hygiene) and lacks experimental evidence to distinguish between both hypotheses.  

> The observed reduction in Varroa mite reproduction rate is not enough to allow the colonies to survive. Survival of the populations is partly due to apicultural practices. In fact, these colonies do not survive better than Varroa-sensitive colonies. A modest reduction in Varroa mite reproduction in a period of almost 20 years is not exceptional and should not be called “rapid parallel evolution” 

reference:
Oddie, M. et al. Rapid parallel evolution overcomes global honey bee parasite.
Scientific Reports 8:7704 1–9 (2018). doi:10.1038/s41598-018-26001-7

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