Genetic Study Shows How Honey Bees Evolved In Response To Deadly Parasite

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The researchers found that the honey bees managed to survive the introduction of the deadly Varroa mite. Alexander Mikheyev/OIST

A new genetic study of wild honey bees living in forests near Ithaca, New York, sheds light on how they rapidly evolved resistance in response to the deadly parasitic mite Varroa destructor. The mite, originally from Asia, has been implicated in causing the deaths of millions of bee colonies across North America and Europe, and yet the population in Ithaca is still going strong, despite being infected with the parasite in the mid-1990s.