A Morphometrical Study of Varroa Mite, a Parasite Living on Syrian Honeybees Apis mellifera syriaca

One hundred and ninety eight samples of honeybee mites, infecting Syrian honeybee 'Apis mellifera syriaca', were from five different locations covering the main beekeeping regions of Syria and analyzed morphometrically in the laboratory of honeybee researches in Faculty of Agriculture, University of Damascus. The measurements taken were the body length and width (Anderson & Trueman 2000). The results were compared with those of V. jacobsoni and V. destructor reported by (Anderson & Trueman 2000) to confirm which species of mite is present on Syrian honeybee. No significant differences were shown between specimens coming from the five different Syrian regions. However, remarkable differences were present between Varroa mites infecting Syrian apiaries and both Varroa species already known (destructor and jacobsoni, Anderson and Trueman 2000).