Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.

Science 2 August 1989:
Vol. 245. no. 4918, pp. 638 - 639
DOI: 10.1126/science.245.4918.638
Prev | Table of Contents | Next

Articles

Attraction of the Parasitic Mite Varroa to the Drone Larvae of Honey Bees by Simple Aliphatic Esters

Yves Le Conte 1, Gérard Arnold 1, Jérôme Trouiller 1, Claudine Masson 1, Bertrand Chappe 2, and Guy Ourisson 2

1 Laboratoire de Neurobiologie Comparée des Invertébrés, INRA-CNRS, 91440 Bures-sur-Yvette, France
2 Institut de Chimie des Substances Naturelles, CNRS, 91198 Gif-sur-Yvette, France

An important parasitic threat to honey bees, the mite Varroa jacobsoni, is attracted to its major prey, drone larvae, by methyl and ethyl esters of straight-chain fatty acids, in particular methyl palmitate. These esters were extracted from drone larvae with n-hexane and were identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Their behavioral effect was evaluated with the use of a four-arm airflow olfactometer.

To Advertise     Find Products

Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)