<P> The adult female mite is reddish - brown in color, while the male is white . Varroa mites are flat, having a button shape . They are 1--1.8 mm long, 1.5--2 mm wide and have eight legs . </P> <P> Mites reproduce on a 10 - day cycle . The female mite enters a honey bee brood cell . As soon as the cell is capped, the Varroa mite lays eggs on the larva . The young mites, typically several females and one male, hatch in about the same time as the young bee develops and leave the cell with the host . When the young bee emerges from the cell after pupation, the Varroa mites also leave and spread to other bees and larvae . The mite preferentially infests drone cells, allowing the mite to reproduce one more time with the extra three days it takes a drone to emerge vs a worker bee . This can cause genetic defects such as useless wings or viruses and fungi in the bee . </P> <P> The adults suck the "blood" (hemolymph) of adult honey bees for sustenance, leaving open wounds and transmitting diseases and viruses . The compromised adult bees are more prone to infections . With the exception of some resistance in the Russian strains and bees that have Varroa sensitive hygiene (about 10% of colonies naturally have it), the European Apis mellifera bees are almost completely defenseless against these parasites . (Russian honey bees are one - third to one - half less susceptible to mite reproduction). </P> <P> The model for the population dynamics is exponential growth when bee brood are available, and exponential decline when no brood is available . In 12 weeks, the number of mites in a western honey bee hive can multiply by (roughly) 12 . High mite populations in the autumn can cause a crisis when drone rearing ceases and the mites switch to worker larvae, causing a quick population crash and often hive death . </P>

Which life stage of the honey bee is most commonly fed upon by the varroa mite