"The Honey Bee Landlord: Every Tenant’s Dream"

It’s not just the usual suspects (varroa, small hive beetles, and wax moths) but bee lice, pollen mites, predatory mites, fungus beetles, histerid beetles, Euvarroa mites, tracheal mites, Tropilaelaps mites, and even other bees. In all, at least two dozen species from a host of diverse families in six different orders are known to live in honey bee colonies, many of which can’t live apart from them.

These organisms are so distinctive and fascinating in their habits that they warrant the designation melittophile (from the Greek meli meaning honey and phile for lover). Unique behaviours, unusual anatomy and distinctive ecological strategies display clearly that they have worked hard over evolutionary time to forge these markedly consequential relationships, begging the question: why? There’s clearly something very attractive about being in the hive. If we were to think of this like a tenant–landlord relationship, maybe the appeal would be a bit easier to see.