Varroa destructor strain:IL Raw sequence reads. Varroa destructor strain:IL

Experimental honey bee colonies of Apis mellifera liguistica maintained in Langstroth hives at the Agricultural Research Organization, Volcani Center, Israel were used in the course of this study. These experimental colonies were not treated against V. destructor and received 60% sugar solution and 70% pollen cake seasonally when needed. Phoretic or non-reproductive mites were collected from honey bees in these colonies by sugar shake method (Dietemann et al., 2013). The mites were kept on moist filter paper and dissected within an hour following collection. Within an hour of mite collection, an individual mite was excised using a fine surgical blade (size no. 11) under a stereo microscope (Olympus SZX12, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, Japan) and put immediately into a 1.5 ml Eppendorf tube dipped in liquid nitrogen. The dissected mites were arranged into three treatment groups: (1) gnathosoma only, (2) mites without both the gnathosoma and forelegs (WB_minus), and (3) mites with both the gnathosoma and forelegs (WB_plus).