Acarapis woodi

Taxobox
name = Honey bee tracheal mite
regnum = Animalia
phylum = Arthropoda
subphylum = Chelicerata
classis = Arachnida
subclassis = Acari
superordo = Acariformes

ordo = Prostigmata
subordo = Eleutherengona
unranked_familia = Heterostigmata
superfamilia = Tarsonemoidea
familia = Tarsonemidae
genus = "Acarapis"
species = "A. woodi"
binomial = "Acarapis woodi"
binomial_authority = (Rennie, 1921)

"Acarapis woodi" (honey bee tracheal mite) is a mite that is an internal parasite of honey bees. Tracheal mites are related to spiders and have eight legs. Acarapis woodi live and reproduce in the tracheal tubes of the bees. The female mite attaches between five to ten eggs to the tracheal walls, where the larvae hatch and develop in 2 - 3 weeks to adult mites. The mites parasitize young bees up to two weeks old through the tracheal tube openings. There they pierce the tracheal tube walls with their mouthparts and feed on the haemolymph of the bees. More than a hundred mites can populate the trachea and weaken the bees. The mites are very small, generally under 175 micrometres, and can only be seen and identified under a microscope.

Other mites that are similar in appearance are "Acarapis externus", and "Acarapis dorsalis".

References

* [http://www.sel.barc.usda.gov/acari/content/trachealmites.html Tracheal mites] Systematic Entomology Laboratory, Agricultural Research Service, United States Department of Agriculture
*Denmark HA, Cromroy HL, Sanford MT. (2000). [http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/misc/bees/tracheal_mite.htm Honey bee tracheal mite, "Acarapis woodi"] "Featured Creatures". Accessed Dec 2007.