Re: varroa destructor introduction and evolution

*>> Isn't this inbreeding of the most intense kind?  Why haven't
*>> they inbred themselves into dysfunctionality and unsurvivability
*>>by now?

Quite possibly there is no "genetic variation" in them. They have
reached as state of "perfection" thus allowing such breeding of
brother and syster. Everybody shares all the same traits and nothing
new may be added, but if it is, it is a failure and will breed out.

*>A queen honeybee lays eggs if she chooses she lays a few she doesn't
*>fertilize with sperm. The bee from this egg becomes a drone. If the
workers
*>of this hive create queen cells and a virgin flight occurs many
drones from
*>this hive also go forth. It is highly probable the virgin queen will
be
*>fertilized by some or all of her male brothers. 

UC Davis' Apiarist was asked the above question: will the queen take
on a drone from her hive during her maiden flight? The answer was NO
due to her ability to sense the pheromone from her own hive and will
spurn that drone.

*************

No arsenal, no weapon in the arsenals of the world,
is so formidable as the WILL and moral courage 
of free men and women.

-- Ronald Reagan