STUDIES OF LARVAL MIGRATION AND METAMORPHIC DEVELOPMENT OF SMALL HIVE BEETLES (Aethina tumida) IN SANDY AND HUMUS SOIL.

Abstract

Small hive beetle Aethina tumida Murray (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) is an invasive pest and kleptoparasite of social honey bees. It is native to sub-Saharan Africa, in both the forest and savannah ecozones where it exists as occasional pests of colonies of African subspecies of the western honey bee, Apis mellifera adansonii Linnaeus (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Recently, it has become an invasive species with introductions and significant damages recorded among bee colonies in America and Europe. It is important to understand more on the beetles’ comparative relationship with other Nitidulids, its biology and adaptive morphology for social cohabitation and trophallaxy with the social honey bees. In this experiment, the beetle larvae were reared on honey combs under room conditions 28 ± 2°C, 78 ± 5% RH, and 13 h L: 11 h D photoperiod. A total of seventy five (75) larvae were introduced into each of 40 transparent plastic jars containing humus soil (labelled A1-A20) and sandy soil (labelled B1-B20) and studied for 20 days. Two set ups, one from each soil type were removed and examined daily for developmental changes. A total of 42.22% larval instars survived through to the resting stage and the percentage survival through the subsequent stages reduces. However, the reductions were not statistically different between and within the groups (F5, 42 = 0.887, Sig = 0.498 (p ‹ 0.05). The last instar larval stage in the soil has a mean body length of 8.069 ± 0.531mm (SD), (n = 26) which reduced to 5.196 ± 0.1149mm (SD) (n = 27) in the teneral adult. Major reconstructions of the body parts and organs, sclerotization of body segments, dorsal tergite, ventral sternite, conspicuous stigmatization, prothoracic shield became apparent from the prepupal and pupal stages. Development in SHB resembled the general biological development in Nitidulids. Since development of SHB as a pest and kleptoparasite of honeybee colony alternate between the soil and the bee hive, its control should involve soil and hive treatment