African bee

The African honey bee (Apis mellifera scutellata) is a subspecies of the Western honey bee. It is native to central and southern Africa.

This subspecies has been determined to constitute one part of the ancestry of the Africanized bees (AKA "killer bees") spreading through the Americas.

They are well known for their significantly sweeter honey, when compared to other European and American honey bees.

The African bee is being threatened in South Africa by the Cape honey bee. When a female worker from a Cape honey bee colony enters an African bee nest, they are not attacked, partly due to their resemblance to the African bee queen. Since she is independent from her own colony, she begins laying eggs (at which point she is treated like a queen), and since she is not fertilized, they will hatch as "clones" of herself, which will also be treated as queens. Eventually, the African bee workers will destroy their true queen in favor of their new infertile Cape honey bee queen, and since the workers will not be replaced by new workers when they die, the colony will be full of Cape honey bee queen "clones". When there are no more workers to bring them food, they will spread out to find a new colony.

Apis mellifera scutellata