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Insects
Special Issues
Recent Advances in Bee Parasite, Pathogen, and Predator Interactions
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Recent Advances in Bee Parasite, Pathogen, and Predator Interactions

A special issue of Insects (ISSN 2075-4450). This special issue belongs to the section "Social Insects and Apiculture".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 10 July 2026 | Viewed by 1659

Special Issue Editor

Dr. Angélique Vétillard

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM), Unité Métabiot, 22440 Ploufragan, France Centre de Recherche sur la Biodiversité et l’Environnement, UMR5300, CNRS-Université de Toulouse III-IRD, Université Paul Sabatier, 31077 Toulouse, France
Interests: host–parasite interactions; varroidae; behavior mechanisms; antimicrobial peptides; ants venom; ectoparasite infestations

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Honeybees are major pollinators, and besides pesticides, global changes, and urbanization, parasites, pathogens, and predators are important factors responsible for the very alarming colony decline. The microsporidium Nosema ceranae (a fungus) and ectoparasite Varroa destructor (a mite) are common biotic stressors of honeybees that cause serious damage to colonies. Concerning V. destructor, what makes the mite so dangerous to Apis mellifera is that it has the capacity to transmit and replicate viruses such as deformed wing virus (DWV) and acute bee paralysis virus (ABPV). In addition, infections with N. ceranae, Paenibacillus, or infestations with the small hive beetle (Aethina tumida) have devastating consequences for the respective colonies. More recently, A. mellifera appeared to be very sensitive to the predator V. velutina.

The aim of this Special Issue, “Recent Advances in Bee Parasite, Pathogen, and Predator Interactions”, is to highlight original advanced research or reviews and to provide an updated integrated picture of honeybee-associated pests while encouraging further innovative research to improve the health status of honeybee colonies. Several topics, including new detection tools, epidemiological approaches, biotechnical approaches (e.g. RNA replication approaches), chemical communication management in the hive, new techniques reducing stress factors, integrated management based on coevolutive processes allowing the colony to tolerate pests, and colony selection approaches of resistance to pests, will be welcome in this issue.

Dr. Angélique Vétillard
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Insects is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • honeybee-associated pests
  • innovative research
  • new detection tools
  • integrated pest management

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 1355 KiB  
Article
Nationwide Screening for Arthropod, Fungal, and Bacterial Pests and Pathogens of Honey Bees: Utilizing Environmental DNA from Honey Samples in Australia
by Gopika Bhasi, Gemma Zerna and Travis Beddoe
Insects 2025, 16(8), 764; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects16080764 - 25 Jul 2025
Viewed by 532
Abstract
The European honey bee (Apis mellifera) significantly contributes to Australian agriculture, especially in honey production and the pollination of key crops. However, managed bee populations are declining due to pathogens, agrochemicals, poor forage, climate change, and habitat loss. Major threats include [...] Read more.
The European honey bee (Apis mellifera) significantly contributes to Australian agriculture, especially in honey production and the pollination of key crops. However, managed bee populations are declining due to pathogens, agrochemicals, poor forage, climate change, and habitat loss. Major threats include bacteria, fungi, mites, and pests. With the increasing demand for pollination and the movement of bee colonies, monitoring these threats is essential. It has been demonstrated that honey constitutes an easily accessible source of environmental DNA. Environmental DNA in honey comes from all organisms that either directly or indirectly aid in its production and those within the hive environments. In this study, we extracted eDNA from 135 honey samples and tested for the presence of DNA for seven key honey bee pathogens and pests—Paenibacillus larvae, Melissococcus plutonius (bacterial pathogens), Nosema apis, Nosema ceranae (microsporidian fungi), Ascosphaera apis (fungal pathogen), Aethina tumida, and Galleria mellonella (arthropod pests) by using end-point singleplex and multiplex PCR assays. N. ceranae emerged as the most prevalent pathogen, present in 57% of the samples. This was followed by the pests A. tumida (40%) and G. mellonella (37%), and the pathogens P. larvae (21%), N. apis (19%), and M. plutonius (18%). A. apis was detected in a smaller proportion of the samples, with a prevalence of 5%. Additionally, 19% of the samples tested negative for all pathogens and pests analysed. The data outlines essential information about the prevalence of significant arthropod, fungal, and bacterial pathogens and pests affecting honey bees in Australia, which is crucial for protecting the nation’s beekeeping industry. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Bee Parasite, Pathogen, and Predator Interactions)
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12 pages, 1922 KiB  
Article
Nosemosis in Russian Apis mellifera L. Populations: Distribution and Association with Hybridization
by Milyausha Kaskinova, Luisa Gaifullina, Gleb Zaitsev, Alexandr Davydychev and Elena Saltykova
Insects 2025, 16(6), 641; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects16060641 - 18 Jun 2025
Viewed by 769
Abstract
One of the common causes of mass death in bee colonies is the infectious disease nosemosis, which is caused by two types of microsporidia, Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae. Of the many factors contributing to the spread of nosemosis, in this paper [...] Read more.
One of the common causes of mass death in bee colonies is the infectious disease nosemosis, which is caused by two types of microsporidia, Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae. Of the many factors contributing to the spread of nosemosis, in this paper we consider the hybridization of subspecies of Apis mellifera L. In most of Russia, the native subspecies is the dark forest bee Apis mellifera mellifera, which is representative of the evolutionary lineage M. The export of bee packages and queens from the southern regions of Russia and other countries has led to the fragmentation of the range of these subspecies. First, we determined the maternal and paternal ancestry of 349 honey bee colonies across 12 beekeeping regions of Russia using the mitochondrial tRNAleu-COII locus and nine nuclear SSR markers (Ap243, 4a110, A024, A008, A43, A113, A088, Ap049, and A028). Among them, 140 colonies belonged to subspecies A. m. mellifera, 58 colonies were of hybrid origin, and 151 colonies belonged to evolutionary lineage C. Then, using microscopy and PCR analysis, we performed diagnostics of nosemosis in the studied colonies: N. apis was detected in 87 colonies, N. ceranae in 102 colonies, and coinfection was observed in 36 colonies. The results of our study indicate that the main reservoir of Nosema microsporidia was bees of evolutionary lineage C. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in Bee Parasite, Pathogen, and Predator Interactions)
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