http://articles.extension.org/pages/65450/varroa-mite-reproductive-biology

>When more than one mite invade a single brood cell, the per capita fecundity decreases, as the number of mother mites per cell increases. Mites invading brood cells in older combs also have fewer offspring. This led scientists to speculate that mites themselves might have a chemical to inhibit each other’s reproduction (a pheromone). A chemical, (Z)-8-heptadecene, was identified. In the laboratory, it caused a 30% reduction in mite fecundity. When tested in the colony, the average number of offspring was 3.48 in cells treated with (Z)-8-heptadecene, but 3.96 in control cells. This difference was small, but statistically, highly significant (P < 0.01). The effective fecundity (number of potentially mated daughters) was 0.94 in treated cells, and 1.31 in control cells; and this level of difference should have a rather large impact on population growth.<


Dangit Glen!  Your bursting my bubble!

From the Donze paper   (easy to find on Scholar)

The number of daughters per infesting mother decreases at higher rates of infestation per cell, but the proportion of such daughters with a mate rises sharply due to the higher probability of finding a male within multi-infested cells. The number of mated daughters per mother is maximal in cells with two foundress Varroa females.

I hate it when papers conflict!   You have to pick a winner...  I need to reread both again obviously now.   It appears the Donze paper in theory agree with the one you cite, there are less mites,  BUT more that are successfully mated?  I also recall a paper We discussed that showed up to 7 in a cell still had a higher rate of fertile females than one with only 1 foundress,  but now I need to go back and ponder how they presented the math!

Great find  thanks!

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