Here are Your Answers
Following answers taken from Bee Culture Magazine, Dec. 2005

Level 1 Beekeeping

1.  True  In the northern climates the worker bee typically lives five to six weeks in the
     summer and five to six months in the winter.

2.  Abdomen

3.  The creamy colored fat body in the larva is very large, and shows through the
     transparent skin.  Fat tissue, toom is abundant in the larva, but larval cells
     contain, besides large amounts of fat, glycogen and toward the end of the larval
     stage, numerous minute protein granules.  The fat body is storage tissue used to
     conserve elaborated food products not immediately needed.  Thus, they carry a
     large supply of material into the pupal stage where it is consumed by the pupal
     tissues developing into adult organs.

4.  True  The exoskeleton forms a primary defense mechanism against the entry of
     pathogens.

5.  True  We commonly recognize two types of immune processes in insects,
     cellular and humeral (hormonal), although they are probably not entirely
     independent.

6.  False  Bees drifting between colonies has been shown to contribute to the
     transfer of Varroa mites between colonies, and infested bees drift more frequently
     than uninfested bees.

7.  False  The number of Varroa mite feeding perforations do not increase during
     host pupal development, since Varroa mites puncture their host bee only at the
     very beginning of the pupal phase.  The female mites and their progeny apparently
     use the same feeding sites throughout development.  Therefore, the wounds
     remain open, providing a long period for unhindered passage of pathogens.

8.  False  Female tracheal mite dispersal occurs primarily at night when the bees are
     less active and more crowded together, to increase the chances for a questing
     mite to transfer to a new host.

9.  True  Egg development (oogenesis) and subsequent oviposition  by female
      Varroa mites is dependent on repeated hemolymph meals taken by the mites
      beginning shortly after the brood cell is capped.

10. True  Perforation of the integument by the chelicerae of the female Varroa mite
      causes damage to the pupal host tissue in and around the wound, affecting the
      permeability of the epidermal cell membranes.  These perforations are used as
      feeding sites for sucking hemolymph.

11. True  Bee deformity includes malformed appendages (without a leg,
      crumpled/vestigial wings), shortened abdomens and overall reduction in size.

12. False  While there has been one report that Varroa mite infested workers may
      start foraging earlier in life, most research has shown that bees that were
      infested during their pupal period are able to forage as well as their noninfested
      sisters, as long as they live and can actually fly.

13. True  Within the Winter cluster female Varroa mites transfer often between
      over wintering living bees and from dead and dying bees on to living bees.