I have now posted my first attempts at photography through a home-made
dissecting microscope at:

http://www.stratford-upon-avon.freeserve.co.uk/Images/Varroa.htm

Despite searching through debris in 2 apiaries, I was unable to find a
single mite - so I have used some of the original sample first found in
1997.

Having looked at a fairly large sample of mites and compared them with the
reference photographs at:

http://www.anu.edu.au/BoZo/trueman/labsite/images/mite.gif

It seems to me that there is a considerable variation in the shape of mites
from the dorsal viewpoint, i.e. the overall shape of the carapace; the one
from Kerala and the top-right one from the UK both look like jacobsonii to
me.
However, the ventral views of the UK mites look like much more like
destructor, although I am not so sure about that from Kerala.

Opinions welcomed!

Peter Edwards
[log in to unmask]
www.stratford-upon-avon.freeserve.co.uk/

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