>I thought they preferred the Drone brood because of the longer development
>cycle so that all of the femal eggs could develop and mate before emergence.
>Briefly cycle is:
>        Female mite enters developing, uncapped, cell
>        Female lays first female egg
>        Female lays male egg
>        Female lays second female egg.
>        Female lays third female egg.
>   ? When does capping occur?
>        Female lays fourth female egg
>        eggs hatch and feed on bee larva (many molts) and pupa
>        mites mate in capped cell
>        females (fertilized) leave with larva. Male died.
>    ? How many eggs can a female mite lay?
>    ? are they all layed in one cell?
>
 
Ray,
 
   For answers to questions like that, I recommend the following:
 
Mobus, Bernhard and Clive de Bruyn.  1993.  The New Varroa Handbook.
Northern Bee Books, Scout Bottom Farm, Mytholroyd.  HX7 5JS.  ISBN
0-907908-67-5   (Perhaps available from Wicwas Press in Connecticut:  (203)
250-7575)
 
  There seems to be a variation in how much juvenile hormone is exuded by
larvae, drone vs worker -- no need for mites to "decide" which cells to
enter.
 
 
                                                        Adrian
 
 
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