On 29-Oct-15, at 10:50 AM, randy oliver wrote:

>>
>
>> Does this suggest that they gather in one area in order to reduce  
>> brother/sister
> mating?
>
> Perhaps what you are suggesting is that females seek already  
> infested cells
> in order to allow for cross fertilization of unrelated males and  
> females.
> This is a reasonable hypothesis, as it would appear to be to the
> evolutionary advantage to the mites.  However,  I haven't seen any  
> finding
> suggesting that the presence of a foundress is either attractive or
> repellent to subsequent mite invasion.
>
Hi All

These last 2 paragraphs are new to me and make so much sense. I have  
always thought that it should be easy to find a treatment that works  
because the mating is always brother to sister.  If several(more than  
one) foundress mites enter a cell the offspring have a good chance of  
being genetically different than their parents.

Therefore the practice of drone brood removal using pierco drone  
frames may be far more important than I previously thought.

Bob Darrell
Caledon Ontario
Canada
44N80W

             ***********************************************
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