title: A new threat to honey bees, the parasitic phorid fly Apocephalus borealis.
abstract: Honey bee colonies are subject to numerous pathogens and parasites. Interaction among multiple pathogens and parasites is the proposed cause for Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD), a syndrome characterized by worker bees abandoning their hive. Here we provide the first documentation that the phorid fly Apocephalus borealis, previously known to parasitize bumble bees, also infects and eventually kills honey bees and may pose an emerging threat to North American apiculture. Parasitized honey bees show hive abandonment behavior, leaving their hives at night and dying shortly thereafter. On average, seven days later up to 13 phorid larvae emerge from each dead bee and pupate away from the bee. Using DNA barcoding, we confirmed that phorids that emerged from honey bees and bumble bees were the same species. Microarray analyses of honey bees from infected hives revealed that these bees are often infected with deformed wing virus and Nosema ceranae. Larvae and adult phorids also tested positive for these pathogens, implicating the fly as a potential vector or reservoir of these honey bee pathogens. Phorid parasitism may affect hive viability since 77% of sites sampled in the San Francisco Bay Area were infected by the fly and microarray analyses detected phorids in commercial hives in South Dakota and California's Central Valley. Understanding details of phorid infection may shed light on similar hive abandonment behaviors seen in CCD.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California, United States of America. acore13@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Andrew
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Core
authors.forename: Charles
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Runckel
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ivers
authors.forename: Christopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Quock
authors.forename: Travis
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Siapno
authors.forename: Seraphina
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Denault
authors.forename: Brian
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: Joseph
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Derisi
authors.forename: Christopher D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.forename: John
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Hafernik
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001516:Bees / Q000469:parasitology*; D058893:DNA Barcoding, Taxonomic; D004175:Diptera / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D006702:Homing Behavior; D007814:Larva / Q000502:physiology; D020411:Oligonucleotide Array Sequence Analysis; D013045:Species Specificity; D013997:Time Factors