Hello Barry & All, > < Because even in queen-right colonies of the Cape honey bee the workers > <often develop functional ovaries, it must be assumed that there is > insufficient <queen substance to suppress this in normal sized colonies. In researching the above I found a supporting view by Anderson(1961) quote: "The Cape bee is distinctly different different from all races of honey bees BECAUSE of the presence of large numbers of ovarioles in the ovaries of worker bees and well developed spermatheca." Anderson seems to indicate all capensis workers have got large numbers of ovarioles and well developed spermatheca. Why? Are the capensis larva treated differently or the lack of pheromones as Butler suggests? Different researchers have been able to take mellifera and produce Thelytoky in experiments. None as successful as with capensis. Anderson seems to me to indicate what exactly makes the large numbers of ovarioles and well developed spermatheca is unknown. Barry's theory of lack of strong pheromones is based on *Butler's* hypothesis BUT one thing I have learned from this exchange of information is in Barry's own words "Capensis has very strong pheromones (even the workers). So strong they cause the scuts to ball their own queen. I have never looked so close at capensis before now. I have tried to quote Anderson because I believe Barry is very familier with Anderson's work. I put forth the hypothesis early on in the discussion possibly the workers had mated with drones when normal queens were raised from capensis worker eggs. I believe Anderson suspected the same thing when he looked at capensis . Quote from Anderson in 1961: "However , a spermatheca of a capensis worker bee was never found to be filled with spermatozoa" I believe he felt compeled to check as I would have. Eliminate the simple answer. You said capensis and the scuts were not similar but according to research I have looked at they are similar in many ways. In fact in the research I have done for this post the most alike of the African races. DuPraw (1965) quote: "A.m. scutellata has common features with Apis mellifera capensis From page 36 *Hive and the Honey Bee* quote: "DuPraw, according to Ruttner was unable to DELIMIT Adansonii from capensis on the basis of wing characters". If I am understanding correctly behavior and color are the two main ways you determine if a feral swarm is scutellata or capensis? Both are considered unreliable by researchers in the U.S..I wonder what the color combination is of the AHB in the U.S.. I have asked now three times with not one response back. Surely our researchers are looking at the sample when doing wing venation and the other tests. According to our U.S. researchers the aggressive nature of scuts is always (or almost always) passed on . Doesn't sound from your post the aggressive nature of scuts is passed to capensis when a capensis queen mates with a scutellata drone. Amazing to me both races seem able to maintain almost pure lines in a area of heavy population of both races. Sincerely, Bob Harrison Odessa, Missouri