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Minute to small (1.2-2.5 mm) wingless species.
Body dorsoventrally flattened, setose, reddish to dark brown. Head
broad, short; eye reduced to a minute pale spot behind the sunken
antenna; ocelli absent. Thorax small, adpressed against abdomen,
with sclerites reduced; scutellum, wings and halteres absent. Legs
relatively long and robust, with short and broad tarsal segments,
and claws modified into a comb of over twenty teeth curving inwards.
Abdomen large, broad and dorsoventrally flattened but dorsally
somewhat convex; terga with numerous strong setae, particularly
laterally. The Braulidae are well-known as “bee-lice” in the nests
of honey-bees (Apis spp.). The larvae are commensals, living
in cells in the hive (nest) and feeding on pollen, honey and organic
debris. Adults are “food-parasites” of adult bees, attaching
themselves to the body of the queen (rarely of a worker) and feeding
on liquids from the mouth-opening of the bee.
Altogether three species are known to occur in Europe
and adjacent areas (as included in the Fauna Europaea,
Carles-Tolrá
2007), but only one is known from the Czech Republic (in both
Bohemia and Moravia) and from Slovakia. The occurrence of one more
species in these countries is possible. The family was treated by
Papp (Papp
1998) where references to all the important literature are
given. No summary of previous faunistic data from the Czech Republic
and Slovakia is available; these data are scattered in the
apicultural literature. The nomenclature used in the present
checklist follows that in the Fauna Europaea (Carles-Tolrá
2007).
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