Hi All

We recently had a speaker at our local beek association talking about varroa, specifically varroa life cycle.  She is a very qualified researcher, but, she said that the female mite enters the worker cell just before it is capped, then lays an unfertilised egg that becomes a male who mates with his mother.

This was a shock to me as my understanding was as follows:
A sexually mature female mite enters a brood cell and hides from the nurse bees under the larva just before the cell is capped (9 days since queen laid worker egg, 9.5 days for drone egg).  The mite lays her first egg 70 hours (3 days) after the cell is capped (day 12 for worker, day 12.5 for drone).  This egg is unfertilised and becomes a male mite that matures in 6.5 days (day 18.5 for worker cell, day 19 for drone).  The mother mite starts laying fertilised eggs every 30 hours which become female mites maturing in about 6 days; the first egg laid on day 13.5 for worker cell, maturing on day 19.5 and day 14  for drone cell maturing on day 20.  The second female egg will mature 30 hours later on day 20/21 for worker cell and day 21.5 for drone cell.  The third female egg will mature 30 hours later too late for worker cell but day 22/23 in the drone cell.  
The mature females are mated with their brother, who dies as the cell is opened as do the immature females, that can be seen on a sticky board as white mites.  One and possibly two females can mature in worker cells and two or three in drone cells. 

Comments please!

Bob Darrell
Caledon Ontario
Canada 44N80W
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