> The Cape honeybee Apis mellifera capensis in South Africa is unique in that, under queenless conditions, workers lay unfertilized eggs that typically develop into diploid females. In all other subspecies of Apis mellifera only males are produced from worker-laid eggs. This has allowed Cape workers to be successful parasites of other honeybee subspecies, notably the neighboring Savanna honeybee (A. m. scutellata). Thelytoky in the Cape honeybee has been shown to be genetically determined by a single recessive allele. These results notwithstanding, there remains the possibility that endosymbiotic bacteria such as Wolbachia could be involved in thelytokous parthenogenesis in Cape honeybees.

Multiple Wolbachia strains in Apis mellifera capensis from South
Africa. Apidologie (2009) www.apidologie.org

Notes:

> Wolbachia is a genus of inherited bacteria which infects arthropod species, including a high proportion of insects. It is one of the world's most common parasitic microbes and is potentially the most common reproductive parasite in the biosphere. Wolbachia is notable for significantly altering the reproductive capabilities of its hosts. These bacteria can infect many different types of organs, but are most notable for the infections of the testes and ovaries of their hosts.  Some scientists have suggested that parthenogenesis may always be attributable to the effects of Wolbachia.

*******************************************************
* Search the BEE-L archives at:                       *
* http://listserv.albany.edu:8080/cgi-bin/wa?S1=bee-l *
*******************************************************