Comparison between morphological characters and ultrastructure of Varroa mite from Egypt and Libya

Abstract

Specimens of Varroa mite, Varroa destructor Anderson and Trueman were collected from Egypt and Libya to compare their morphological and morphometric characters. Females were examined using a Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). Our morphological measurements showed that there were a lot of differences between samples of Egypt and Libya. Only two morphological characters showed significant differences among the two locations specimens’ (i.e. anal plate length, anal plate length/ anal plate width (ratio III) and formula of palpal chaetotaxy). These results may be due to geographical locations between Egypt and Libya. We consider samples of Egypt and Libya as morphotypes.