Vairimorpha (genus)
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Author(s): Georgia Department of Agriculture
Source: IPM Images
Vairimorpha Pilley, 1976
This genus of microsporidia is widely distributed and includes pathogens infecting insects. This page deals only with species of Vairimorpha infecting beneficial insects. For species infecting pest species see Vairimorpha (entomopathogens). The genus Vairimorpha is closely related to the genus Nosema and both genera can be only separated by their DNA structure (see Tokarev et al. 2020). More than 150 species have been described in the Nosema/Vairimorpha species complex (Becnel & Andreadis, 2014).
While the infections normally do not kill their host, they shorten their lifespan, weaken them and making them more susceptible to other diseases. At them same time, stress factors like exposure to pesticides makes honey bees more susceptible to these infections.
Vairimorpha apis and V. ceranae are both widespread and equally pathogenic to honey bees, but Vairimorpha ceranae is now more prevalent after it has spread from its native Asia to other parts of the world around 2000.
Vairimorpha and Nosema infections are acquired through the gut where the spores eject their polar filament into a gut wall cell. The microsporidium then multiplies in the cell releasing new spores when the cell dies off. Spores are ovoid or ellipsoid. The mature spores are approximately 3 x 5 µm in size and are typically binucleate with a thick spore wall and an inverted polar tube arranged in several coils. However, in some species all developmental stages are monokaryotic.
Type species of Vairimorpha: Vairimorpha necatrix
Currently, the following species have been entered into the system:
