I recently asked if anyone knew for certain that varroa prefer nurse bees
as hosts during the phoretic phase of their life. Chris mentioned "I went
through a hive a month ago and noticed that the only  visible phoretic
mites were on bees very close to open as opposed to sealed brood." I have
also observed this.

I recently found this document which indicates varroa DO prefer nurse bees
which is good enough for me and my purposes:

http://www.apis.admin.ch/en/krankheiten/docs/varroa/fortpflanzung_e.pdf

I thought I'd share it with the list, it's about the best description of
varroa reproductive behavior that I've run across, and includes pictures :)

George-

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