Barry and all, Thanks for a very interesting post regarding A.M. Scutellata and A.M. Capensis. I have a couple of questions and some observations. 1. In regards to Capensis, what in the past has restricted their range to the Cape area? That is, it seems that given enough time they would have expanded their range (even if they moved north only a couple of miles a year) and ultimately taken over the Scutellata (and other races) if they are as deadly as you describe. 2. It is a testament to good breeding practices that your ApiCrown queens exhibit behaviour that is radically different from the wild Scuts. I am guessing that Dr. Kerr selected for similar characteristics that you are selecting for in ApiCrown queens (or perhaps he didn't). If he did, then can we assume that the genes for aggressiveness must be dominant and re-establish themselves when the bees return to the wild? I wonder about this in light of the so-called "killer bee" phenomenon in the Americas. The Thelytoky (ability of females to lay diploid eggs resulting in clones of themselves) exhibited to a high degree by Capensis is present in other races of Apis Mellifera but probably to a lesser degree. There is a very interesting paper on this topic by G. DeGrandi-Hoffman, E. H. Erickson Jr., D. Lusby, and E. Lusby at http://www.beesource.com/pov/lusby/bsmay1991.htm which discusses their experiments to explore thelytoky in European honeybees with some rather revealing results. It might appear that, naturally, thelytoky is a valuable survival strategy for honeybees but is possibly not seen often in European bees because of normal colony management practices. For anyone wishing to read a short description of the haploid-diploid nature of insect reproduction there is a reasonably good explanation at: http://crsc.calpoly.edu/crsc/Headrick/ipmreproduction.htm Thanks again, Stephen Augustine Bees By The Bay