Proteins from honey bee larval hemolymph as key candidate nutrients for Varroa destructor artificial rearing

Using artificial Parafilm™ dummies, we explored the nutrition of V. destructor females and assessed their survival when fed on hemolymph from bee larvae, pupae or adults. We compared the results to fully synthetic solutions and to filtered larval plasma. The results showed that the parasites could survive for several days or weeks on our different diets. Hemolymph from larva yielded the highest survival rates and filtered cell-free hemolymph was sufficient to maintain the mites for 14 days or more. This cell free solution thus theoretically contains all necessary nutrients for the mite survival. A proteomic analysis on the larval plasma outlined a list of 54 proteins among which several energy metabolism proteins such as vitellogenin, hexamerin or transferrin. These molecules represent key candidate nutrients that could be crucial for V. destructor survival.