Hi Pete,  

It's an interesting read just from the point of view of untangling Cape Bee genome a bit more.  But the mutation? is one in that it seems to lead nowhere. 

> Social Parasitism: Thelytoky [ from the Greek thēlys "female" and tokos "birth" ] enables the Cape honey bee to become socially parasitic. In that, Cape workers can invade another, non-related, honey bee colony and begin to reproduce clones of themselves that the host colony will rear to adulthood. These clones generally become laying workers themselves and further strain the host colony. Eventually, the Cape clones become so numerous that there are not enough non-laying workers to sustain the host colony and the colony dwindles and dies.


Bill Hesbach
Cheshire CT  

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