VOL. 47, NO. 4 SOUTHWESTERN ENTOMOLOGIST SCIENTIFIC NOTE DEC. 2022 Growing Threat to Apis mellifera1 in North America; Arrival of Parasitic Small Hive Beetle, Aethina tumida2, to the State of Morelos, Mexico Erubiel Toledo-Hernández3, César Sotelo-Leyva3, Santo Ángel Ortega-Acosta4, Francisco Palemón-Alberto4, Eduardo U. Moraga-Cáceres5, Andrés Alvear-García6, and Guadalupe Peña-Chora7* The small hive beetle, Aethina tumida (Murray), is a parasite and scavenger of colonies of honey bee, Apis mellifera L. The beetle is endemic to sub Saharan Africa and has become one the most invasive and devasting pests of European honey bees (Neumann and Elzen 2004). In the Americas, the pest was recorded infesting honey bee colonies for the first time in 1998 in Florida. However, the small hive beetle was later confirmed to have arrived in the Americas as early as November 1996 in South Carolina where specimens of small hive beetles not initially identified were identified by Hood (2000) to be A. tumida. To date, the pest has spread throughout the Americas, threatening captive hives used for beekeeping, as well as wild bees (Hernández-Torres et al. 2021; Toledo-Hernández et al. 2021; 2022). In 2007, the small hive beetle was reported for the first time in Mexico, affecting honey bee hives in the northern Mexican State of Coahuila (Del ValleMolina 2007). Presently, small hive beetle has been confirmed in several Mexican States, including Campeche, Guanajuato, Michoacan, Nuevo Leon, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosi, Tamaulipas, and Yucatan (Saldaña et al. 2014, Hernández-Torres et al. 2021). Recently, in October 2021 in an apiary in the Municipality of Tlaltizapan in the central Mexican State of Morelos, routine inspection by beekeepers of 10 honey bee hives detected adult specimens of A. tumida in the managed colonies of A. mellifera, but larvae were not seen in the hive combs. This is the first time small hive beetles in A. mellifera hives were recorded at Morelos. In total, 15 specimens of small hive beetles were collected on bee feeders (Fig. 1a), put into a Falcon tube (Fig. 1b), and given to us by the beekeepers. In a laboratory, small hive beetle individuals were analyzed under a stereo-microscope to identify the insect according to the taxonomic description of Hernández-Torres et al. (2021). Adults of A. tumida were described in the literature as being 5-9 mm long, brownish to rather dark body (Fig. 1c), with somewhat lighter underside, legs and antennal flagelli oval (Fig. 1d), strongly convex, ventral part and upper integument densely covered with bright yellowish hairs (Fig. ________________________ 1Hymenoptera: Apidae Nitidulidae 3Facultad de Ciencias Químico Biológicas, Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero. Av. Lázaro Cárdenas s/n, Apdo. postal 39070, Chilpancingo, Guerrero; México. 4Departamento de Agronomía, Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias y Ambientales de la Universidad Autónoma de Guerrero, Iguala de la Independencia, C.P. 40020, Guerrero, México. 5Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas, 6Facultad de Ciencias Agropecuarias, 7Centro de Investigaciones Biológicas, Universidad Autónoma del Estado de Morelos. Av. Universidad 1001, C.P. 62209, Cuernavaca, Morelos; México. *Corresponding author e-mail: [email protected] 2Coleoptera: 935 1e) (Hernández-Torres et al. 2021). It is important to mention that every year, beekeepers at Morelos move approximately 14,000 hives to the states of Campeche and Veracruz to pollinate flowering citrus cultivars; there are previous reports of small hive beetles affecting beehives of A. mellifera in each of those states (Bayona-Celis et al. 2018, Hernández-Torres et al. 2021). It seems very likely that small hive beetle arrived at Morelos after humans transported bee hives between Morelos and locations where this seriously damaging pest already was present. Fig. 1. Small hive beetle adults a) inside the bee feeder, b) specimens inside the Falcon tube, c) dorsal habitus view, d) ventral habitus view, e) lateral view. 936 Spillover of A. tumida into Mexican states where beekeeping is practiced is a real threat to A. mellifera colonies and honey production in Mexico. It is therefore urgent to mount a multidisciplinary effort to contain the pest. Zoosanitary institutions need to monitor and use control measures to reduce the spread of A. tumida among beekeeping states in Mexico, to safeguard this important socio-economic activity in Mexico and avoid spread to other regions of the USA and Latin America where small hive beetle is not yet present. References Cited Bayona-Celis, A., C. Valdovinos-Flores, J. A. Dorantes-Ugalde, and L. M. SaldañaLoza. 2018. Territory fitness potentials and increased reproductive risk of the small hive beetle, Aethina tumida Murray (Coleoptera, Nitidulidae) in Mexico. In E. J. Ordaz-López [ed.], Reality, Data and Space. Int. J. Statistics Geography. 1st ed. INEGI 9: 4-13. Del Valle-Molina, J. 2007. Small hive beetle infestation (Aethina tumida) in Mexico: Immediate notification report (Report No. OIE: 6397). Animal World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). http://www.oie.int/wahis_2/public/ wahid.php/Diseaseinformation/statusdetail Hernández-Torres, H., A. Georgievich-Kirejtshuk, C. Núñez-Vázquez, and O. García-Martínez. 2021. On Aethina tumida Murray (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae: Nitidulinae) in hives of Apis mellifera Linnaeus (Hymenoptera: Apidae) in Campeche, México. J. Apic. Res. https://doi.org/10.1080/00218839.2021. 1889223 Hood, W. M. 2000. Overview of the small hive beetle, Aethina tumida, in North America. Bee World 81: 129-137. Neumann, P., and P. J. Elzen. 2004. The biology of the small hive beetle (Aethina tumida, Coleoptera: Nitidulidae): gaps in our knowledge of an invasive species. Apidologie 35: 229-247. https://doi.org/10.1051/apido:2004010 Saldaña, L. M., L. G. Lara, and J. A. Dorantes. 2014. Manual nuevos manejos en la apicultura para el control del pequeño escarabajo de la colmena Aethina tumida Murray. México DF. Toledo-Hernández, E., E. U. Moraga-Cáceres, C. C. Lormendez, A. Alvear-García, and G. Peña-Chora. 2021. First report in North America of the parasitic small hive beetle, Aethina tumida, infesting a hive of stingless bee, Plebeia frontalis. Southwest, Entomol. 46: 1037-1040. https://doi.org/10.3958/059.046.0426 Toledo-Hernández, E., G. Peña-Chora, V. M. Hernández-Velázquez, C. C. Lormendez, J. Toribio-Jiménez, Y. Romero-Ramírez, and R. León-Rodríguez. 2022. The stingless bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini): a review of the current threats to their survival. Apidologie 53. https://doi.org/10.1007/s13592022-00913-w 937
