University of Würzburg, 28-Aug-2013. “The Varroa mite is capable of annihilating entire bee colonies. Until now, this has been attributed to viruses that are introduced into the hive by the mites. However, the parasites carry yet another danger to the bees as University of Würzburg researchers found out. […]  … it is now conceivable that the mites pose a danger to the bees in yet another way: The female parasites penetrate into the brood cells and suck at the pupae. It cannot be excluded that they thereby transfer otherwise quite harmless bacteria to the pupae. This would certainly prove fatal to the pupae as the recent experiments of the Beegroup have shown.”

Link to Universität Würzburg: http://www.uni-wuerzburg.de/en/sonstiges/meldungen/detail/artikel/bienenpupp/

Link to the article: http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0066415