According to Zachary Huang's "Varroa Mite Reproductive Biology", varroa mites have a spermatheca, just like honey bee queens, and store sperm.
They only mate once. The mother mite does not mate with her son. In fact the son (first offspring) isn't sexually mature before the second offspring (daughter egg) is laid.
My understanding is she mated with her father, not her son.
Isn't that genetically the same?
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