>
> Could you point us to this data, Randy, please?


S J Martin (1995) Reproduction of Varroa jacobsoni in cells of Apis
mellifera containing one or more mother mites and the distribution of these
cells, Journal of Apicultural Research, 34:4, 187-196

In short, mites appear to invade following a Poisson distribution.  Cells
with 2 foundresses constitute a half to a quarter of those with one
foundress, and the same reduction for 3 foundresses, and so forth.

>Is this not the problem with using drone brood uncapping as a monitoring
method because the mites are not spread evenly through the brood nest?

I've found drone brood uncapping to be unreliable, as have some other
researchers.

>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.

-- 
Randy Oliver
Grass Valley, CA
www.ScientificBeekeeping.com

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