>
>
> >Reproductive parameters of female Varroa destructor and the impact of
> mating in worker brood of Apis mellifera
> Claudia Katharina HÄUßERMANN1 et al.


Good find Bill -- don't know how I missed that one!
The study upturns the conclusions of previous research, both in how the
male egg is formed (previously believed to require a fertilized ovum that
then reverts to haploidy), and whether mature females ever mate again.  All
previous studies that I've seen indicated that if a female misses her
chance to mate upon emergence, then that was the end of her sex life.  The
authors discuss such previous findings:

 " If male mites have the choice, they clearly prefer freshly molted female
mites for mating (Donzé et al. 1996; Ziegelmann and Rosenkranz 2014). In
behavioral experiments, it was observed that mother mites not only move
faster than freshly molted daughter mites but also turn away from male
mites that try to mount the female’s dorsum for mating (Ziegelmann and
Rosenkranz 2014)."

This study raises the question of whether a female that has already mated
and reproduced, ever mates again.

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

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