Behaviour and Genetics of Social Insects Lab Behaviour
   



Madeleine Beekman

The Cape honeybee Apis mellifera capensis


South Africa is home to the Cape honeybee Apis mellifera capensis. The Cape bee is unique in that its workers can produce diploid offspring without mating via thelytokous parthenogenesis. (‘female virgin birth’). The Cape bee is also a notorious parasites of other bee colonies: workers invade other nests and parasitise them with their eggs. Because of thelytoky, these eggs develop into more parasitic workers. More recently we have found that workers also parasites queencells. This is an excellent strategy to increase one’s fitness as the workers produce clones of themselves. Hence the mother of the new queen becomes reincarnated as the next queen. Together with Ben Oldroyd, Mike Allsopp, and Theresa Wossler I work on social parasitism in the Cape bee.