Thelytoky

Definition

Normally an unfertilised bee egg develops into a male. In the Cape honey bee, Apis mellifera capensis, workers can lay eggs that develop into females without mating. In a queenless Cape colony this is a repair mechanism. Introduced into a colony of the neighbouring African subspecies, it becomes a parasitic strategy: the capensis worker lays, develops queen-like pheromones, is tended as a pseudo-queen, and the host colony's own reproduction ends.

Where the word gets used loosely

Sometimes described as cloning. The mechanism restores diploidy in a way that produces offspring closely but not always identically related to the mother.

Bee records that discuss this

• Cape honey beeA honey bee subspecies with a piece of biology that should not work and does. Cape worker bees can lay diploid female eggs without mating — thelytokous parthenogenesis, effectively cloning themselves — which means a worker can become a reproductive without ever becoming a queen. Introduced into the range of neighbouring African bees, that capacity turns into a social parasite that destroys colonies wholesale, and the resulting capensis problem has cost South African beekeeping enormously.