6/5/2023 0 Comments The Bees by Laline PaullThe queens resulting from asexually reproducing females always reproduce sexually by mating with males. In the honeybee subspecies Apis mellifera capensis, which occurs in the very southern tip of Africa, thelytoky has been documented whereby unmated female workers can lay unfertilized eggs which develop into fertile female queens. Female worker bees can also lay infertile eggs that develop into drones. Once mated, a queen’s fertilized eggs become either female workers or future queens and her unfertilized eggs become the male drones. The normal reproductive pathway for honeybees is for the female queen to mate with and be fertilized by a male drone. Within the order Hymenoptera - the bees, wasps and ants – there are numerous examples of species that reproduce parthenogenetically, whereby females reproduce more females without fertilization by a male. The bulk of my bee experience lies in having maintained domestic beehives as part of a living insect ‘zoo’ that the museum once had some years ago. I will attempt to provide an answer, although my expertise is in wood-boring beetles and not bees. "Your inquiry about honeybee reproduction strategies came to me through our Marketing department. I'm truly impressed that Laline Paull researched so well and accurately. Androw, Biodiversity Services Facility, Section of Invertebrate Zoology was kind enough to reply in detail. (view spoiler) [I was so fascinated by this mystery that I wrote to the Carnegie Museum of Natural History, to the "ask an expert" department.
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