Very interesting pic, Toine. After 20 minutes of goofing around with google, I also vote against Varroa, based on general body shape. The mites (i'm pretty sure they're mites anyway) are longer than they are broad. The Varroa isn't, except for some very early development stages.
Could it be that "your" mites are just associated with the bees rather than direct parasites? The closest match I could find was a "pollen mite", hitching a ride with a Mason Bee. http://blueberrytalk.wordpress.com/2008/05/05/mason-bees-and-pollen-mites/ There's some more information on this mite here: http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/beemites/Species_Accounts/Melittiphis.htm On the same site there's also information about another scavenging mite that might inhabit honey bee colonies: http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/beemites/species_accounts/Pneumolaelaps.htm But I can't find any image of these relating the size to a bee, or even a bumblebee. :-( Jostein 2009/9/13 Toine <to...@repiuk.nl>: > A bee unter attack from ugly parasites. Is this Varroa destructor > which kills our honey bee's. Maybe the wisdom of the list can give the > answer. > > http://tinyurl.com/qqeu2l > > Toine > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > PDML@pdml.net > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > -- http://www.alunfoto.no/galleri/ http://alunfoto.blogspot.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
