>as a separate issue, do you think this calls into question the drone/worker brood infestation rates that have been put forth by the researchers? Actually, John, I'm surprised at how relatively little work has been done on mite distribution within a colony. Fuchs wrote the "classic" paper, but there has been a paucity of such research since, despite the question being raised regularly by those creating models for mite population growth. I hope that Dr Spivak's grad student publishes more details on mite distribution. And yes, there is both hard data, and my own personal observations, that indicate that drone brood infestation is not a reliable indicator of overall mite population. Randy Oliver *********************************************** The BEE-L mailing list is powered by L-Soft's renowned LISTSERV(R) list management software. For more information, go to: http://www.lsoft.com/LISTSERV-powered.html