Varroa destructor is by far the most serious threat to the western honey bee, Apis mellifera. A screen bottom board, a cultural method for mite control, is a modified bottom board with a screen that allows mites to fall onto a sticky board, or the grass or soil below the screen. Whether or not a screen bottom board can reduce varroa significantly has been controversial. Most studies show a trend of lower varroa populations in colonies with these boards, but the results are usually not statistically significant. To understand whether the negative results have been due to small sample sizes, or because the board is actually ineffective, we conducted a meta-analysis with seven published studies with a total of 145 colonies. Meta-analysis showed that the confidence intervals of the combined effect sizes were negative with a Hedges’ g of −1.09 (SE 0.39, 95% CI −2.0 to −0.19, p < 0.01), which suggests that the varroa population in colonies with screen bottom boards is significantly lower compared to those with traditional wooden floors. We thus conclude that the screen bottom board does have a significantly negative impact on the varroa population and can be part of tool kits for mite control.

Curculigo orchioides Gaertn. distributed in subtropical regions of Asia including southern China and India. The plant is used as a traditional medicine in China for the treatment of menorrhagia, osteoporosis, and other gynecological problems. The complete chloroplast genome was reported in this study using the Illumina NovaSeq platform. The whole genome of this species was 157,472 bp in length, with a total GC content of 37.44%. The large single copy (LSC) was 86,507 bp, the small single copy (SSC) was 16,867 bp, and both of the two inverted repeats (IRs) were 27,049 bp, respectively. A total of 132 unique genes were identified, among which are 86 protein-coding genes, 38 tRNA genes and 8 rRNA genes. The phylogenetic analysis revealed that C. orchioides was highly clustered with C. capitulata. Our study will provide useful fundamental data for further phylogenetic and evolutionary studies of C. orchioides.

Viscum articulatum is usually used as famous ethno-medicinal plant and popular drink in many provinces of China. In this study, the characterization of the complete chloroplast genome of V. articulatum was analyzed using the Illumina NovaSeq platform. The whole chloroplast genome sequence of V. articulatum is 131,825 including a large single-copy region (LSC, 76,069 bp), a small single-copy region (SSC, 8990 bp), and a pair of repeated regions (IRs, 23,383 bp, each). Further gene annotation in our study revealed the chloroplast genome contains 114 genes, including 36 tRNA genes, 8 rRNA genes and 70 protein-coding genes. A total of 118 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) were identified in the chloroplast genome. Phylogenetic development was analyzed based on V. articulatum with other species of Loranthaceae, the phylogenetic tree in our study revealed that V. articulatum is a lineage independent of other species in genus Viscum.