Dave Cushman wrote:
>No, The diploid eggs laid by thelytokious bees are formed from haploid
>eggs that have a modified division process in the early stages
>of cell division...

To put this into plain English, some insects can produce females without
mating. This occurs in many different insects such as aphids, but very
rarely in honey bees. It is a trait of the African bee called "capensis".

Normal honey bee queens mate with from 10 to 50 drones, depending on the
species. This means that the workers of a hive are sisters, but with many
different fathers. 

Evidently, nature has evolved this method to prevent a colony from having
only one father, which after all, could be the queen's brother! Probably
such a mechanism results in a more diverse, stronger colony over all.

With capensis bees, a laying worker can produce female eggs which are clones
of her. This is not a good thing; it is a bad thing. If you don't beleive
me, read this:

* Infestation levels of Apis mellifera scutellata swarms by socially
parasitic Cape honeybee workers (Apis mellifera capensis)
Stephan HÄRTEL, et al (Apidologie 37 2006) *

EXCERPTS:

The "dwindling colony syndrome" caused by
socially parasitic workers of the Cape honeybee,
Apis mellifera capensis Escholtz, is a
recent example of the spread of a pest due to
movement of colonies ...
socially parasitic workers have caused considerable
harm to A. m. scutellata based apiculture.
 
Commercial beekeepers with large numbers of
colonies have been severely affected and have
in some cases reported the *complete loss* of all
managed colonies. This has
occurred repeatedly in every season for the last
decade.

Recent genetic studies have shown that a single
clonal lineage, derived from one individual
worker by uninterrupted generations of thelytokous
parthenogenesis caused the *mass extinctions*
of managed A. m. scutellata colonies. 
This clonal lineage covers
vast regions in northern South Africa.

Apicultural
management will need to include enhanced
diagnostic efforts, the change of apiary layouts
and hive handling to particularly reduce the
horizontal transmission of the socially parasitic
Cape honeybee lineage.

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