Possible Role of Geographical Location and Queen Absence on Damage of Small Hive Beetles (Aethina tumida Murray) on Honey Bee Colonies

Abstract

On the geographical basis, sub-Saharan Africa is the origin of small hive beetles (SHBs), Aethina tumida Murray, 1867 (Family: Nitidulidae) (Neumann et al., 2016; Neumann & Elzen, 2004). SHBs have been able to invade new regions outside their native range and spread to America, Asia, Australia and Europe (Neumann et al., 2016). SHBs were reported in the United States in 1996 (Elzen et al., 1999; Hood, 2004; Hood & Miller, 2005), and other continents such as Australia in 2002 (Hood, 2004), Asia in 2010 (Lee et al., 2017), Europe in 2014 (Mutinelli et al., 2014), South America in 2017 (Al Toufailia et al., 2017), the islands of Philippines 2014 (Cervancia et al., 2016) and Mauritius in 2016 (Muli et al., 2018). They have succeeded to invade and establish in the USA and across the east coast of Australia (Hood, 2000; Neumann et al., 2016; Neumann & Elzen, 2004), however, the invasion does not always mean the establishment of SHBs in new country, as SHB detection has been reported from Egypt and Portugal without any strong evidence of establishment (Abou-Shaara et al., 2018; El-Niweiri et al., 2008; Hassan & Neumann, 2008; Mostafa & Williams, 2000; Murilhas, 2004). In 2014, SHBs were detected in Italy (Mutinelli, 2014; Mutinelli et al., 2014; Neumann et al., 2016; Palmeri et al., 2015) and the authorities have been active since detection trying to eradicate the SHBs and prevent their spread towards other EU countries.