Today was filled with fun, exciting and unusual finds. I started with helping a few students with a part of their thesis project. I had to identify a frame of eggs, help them write down where they were located and close up the hive. They were hoping to use this as a way to identify the stages of the honeybees. As well as the reaction to the deformed wing virus that was injected into the queen.
"One of these things is not like the other."
While inspecting a few of the hives, I noticed something unusual. It may be hard to see in this picture. But you can see a drone (male bee) with yellowish eyes. I learned this means the drone contains a genetic disorder that has made him blind.
After spending the morning in the field, I made my way to the lab to pull pupa for injection. When I finished I made my way over to where they were collecting Varroa mites. This picture below is how the mites are stored until they are able to complete their project.
I took this picture to try and get a better view of a male Varroa mite. The male Varroa mite is a smaller white mite (upper right corner of the lower cell). In the process of taking the photo, I managed to capture a female Varroa mite in the background (the larger brown mite behind the male).
As you can see today was a busy and fun day in the Honeybee lab. :)
Update: June 22, 2018
I was asked to circle the Varroa mites on the picture above. Below I have included a picture that highlights the mites. The RED circles are the male Varroa mites and the BLUE circle shows the female Varroa mites. Hope that this helps show the mites better. Also the white dropping that you can see on the bottom of the cell is actually mite residue.
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