[mites] do a great number of remarkable things!"
Both the mite reproductive strategy, and the modes of transmission by drift
and robbing, strongly favor the rapid evolution and and dispersal of
resistant mites.
There is indeed the chance for cross mating when multiple foundresses enter
a cell, but the survival of any offspring is limited by the competition, and
often death of the pupa in the cell. But all it takes is one adaptive new
genetic or epigenetic combination to launch a new wave of more successful
mites.
Randy Oliver
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