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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.