>  "In a natural drop, if brood is present, about half of
>the mites that drop are ones coming out of emerging brood, that would not
>survive for more than a few hours (Lobb 1997 Mortality of Varroa jacobsoni
>Oudemans during or soon after the emergence of worker and drone honeybees,
>Apidologie 28:367)".

I continue to find this quote fascinating and possibly the key to understanding 
natural mite drops.  If we can visually identify these mites "that would not
survive for more than a few hours" and count them separately, can that added 
info provide another dimension to our understanding when looking at a drop 
board?  For one thing, an estimate on how many mites are in currently hatching 
brood?

By counting the dark mites and the pale mites, we could see how many have been
out for a while and are viable, and how many had a zero or near-zero lifespan.

The problem I am finding is that I do not know if we can visually distinguish the 
difference between mites that are viable and the ones which die at emergence 
or shortly after by colour. I cannot find any info about that.  I have, however, 
copied a slide from Jean-Pierre Chapleau's website at 
http://honeybeeworld.com/diary/incl/bj10.h13.jpg

That slide shows a progression of colouring and which mites to count, but does 
not say why and if the ones which we are to count are all viable (ie. live 30 to
90 days and can reproduce normally) or includes some non-viable mites.

Does anyone on this list have access to information and preferably pictures on 
how to discriminate between the viable and non-viable dropping mites?

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