Small hive beetle infestation levels independent of honey bee colony phenotypes: Pheromones overruling kairomones?

Kairomones and pheromones are known to influence the behavior of the small hive beetle (Aethina tumida, SHB), but their relative importance in governing infestation levels is not well understood. Given that kairomones govern SHB infestation levels, there should be correlations with host colony phenotypes. Here, we examined whether extreme differences in colony phenotypes affect SHB infestation levels in Brazil. Our findings revealed no significant impact of colony phenotypes, thereby suggesting that pheromones can overrule kairomones in explaining SHB infestation levels.
, , # Data from: Small hive beetle infestation levels independent of honey bee colony phenotypes: Pheromones overruling kairomones?

\[DOI: 10.5061/dryad.4mw6m90p0](DOI: 10.5061/dryad.4mw6m90p0)

#### File name: Palonen_et_al_2025_JAR_data.csv

The data are stored in a .csv format.

Data can be read in software that can read .csv data (we used Microsoft Excel, R, and RStudio).

Colony phenotype and small hive beetle (*Aethina tumida*) infestation data from 20 honey bee (*Apis mellifera*) colonies of Africanized origin, collected in Saõ Paulo, Brazil, in January-February 2023.

**Description of the variables:**

* colony_type: Standard Langstroth (S) or nucleus (N)
* colony_id: A unique ID for each colony
* capped_brood: Amount of capped brood estimated with the Liebefeld method (number of grid squares)

open_brood: Amount of open brood estimated with the Liebefeld method (number of grid squares)
* honey: Amount of honey estimated by the Liebefeld method (number of grid squares)
* pollen: ..., ,