>
> I'm not clear on where the idea that mites are clones of one another came
> from.


Probably from a lack of understanding of the anatomy and biology of the
varroa mite, myself included.

My understanding is that a foundress mite will first produce a sterile,
male mite. Once the male mite hits reproductive age, the mother mite will
mate with the son, laying fertilized female daughter mites. If my
understanding is incorrect, please let me know.

If the mite reproductive system is anything like the honeybee, the male
mite that's layed first would be a "clone" of the mother mite. Then when
the mother mite mates with the son, they are imparting half of the mother
genetics and half of the son genetics onto the daughter. But the half of
the genetics from the son originally came 100% from the mother. So while
the resulting daughter isn't a "clone" in the exact sense, it does contain
all of the same chromosomes as the mother, although possibly slightly
rearranged.

Or am I mis-understanding something?

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