Josten, Thanks for the links. A pollen mite could be it. The bee was moving slow and didn't want to fly (maybe dying) so I could observe the crowd. The mites sometimes moved around on his body and sometimes crowded his back, which is strange for a parasite. My vote goes to pollen mites. Toine
2009/9/13 AlunFoto <[email protected]>: > 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 <[email protected]>: >> 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 >> [email protected] >> 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 > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow > the directions. > -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
