[4][5] It is unclear if this is due to a superior nectar gathering ability, lack of adaptability in the European honey bees for tropical environment,[4] or both.

In times of prolonged dearth they would migrate to a better food source area,[4] a strategy applied also by Apis dorsata, rather than waiting for a better season (European and Oriental bees).

The lack of significant energy needs for thermoregulation of the brood nest in the tropics corresponds to a very rapid build-up of even the smallest african colonies, the higher in numbers and smaller in size swarming strategy makes perfect sense.

[7] In lower environmental temperatures where energy loss is more pronounced, it has been shown through Apis mellifera scutellata that honey bees seek warmer, less-concentrated and less-viscous nectar, an energetically favorable behavior.

[7] Nectar that is highly concentrated in sugar is more viscous and therefore reduces the speed of consumption and the size of honey bee crop loads.

[7] In cooler ambient temperatures, harvesting small, concentrated quantities of nectar does not allow honey bees to maintain the metabolism necessary for foraging flight.

[7] In A. m. scutellata, it was found that crop loads were largely contained in the abdomen, though it remains unclear whether this balances out the aforementioned energy loss from the thorax during flight.

[8] The relative advantage is so great that it is still more energetically favorable for a honey bee to collect warm nectar, even at low sugar concentrations (10%).

The differences in fitness strategy were thought to be accounted for by the fact that African worker bees have a greater preference for pollen over nectar, which is a direct food resource for the emerging brood.

[12] For example, having fewer or relatively older workers who prefer nectar means that the colony will not have the resources available to rapidly or efficiently feed new broods.

[12] Over time, distributions of the genotypic traits for worker food preference must have clustered around those conferring a proclivity towards resources that improved the fitness of the subspecies.

Trying to meet the energetic needs of the colony and reproduction might decrease their overall survival during the winter and it is more evolutionarily favorable for them to store nectar and honey.

[12][16] African bees are more vulnerable to less predictable times of scarcity or attack and it is therefore to their advantage to produce as many young as possible, increasing the likelihood that some or even many will survive.

[12] Fewell and Bertram’s study is significant in that it provides a plausible method through which the fitness characteristics of the subspecies could have evolved from a small number of behavioral differences in worker bees.

Specifically, A. mellifera capensis workers produce crucial pheromones, achieve reproductive status, and overthrow an A. m. scutellata queen.

[18] The recent development of technology to study the genetic makeup of colonies has revealed that the offspring contribution of reproducing worker parasites merits closer attention.

Dietemann et al. was able to prove that A. m. capensis worker parasites were able to produce mandibular pheromones that mimic that of A. m. scutellata queens while in their presence.

[23] The single lineage of parasitizing A. m. capensis may have gained evolutionary advantage because, compared to other related species, it is not susceptible to the host queen’s pheromonal reproductive suppression of workers.

On the other hand, potential parasites face the challenge of being discovered by the host queen, usually the sole reproductive individual in the colony.

"[20] Workers usually focus their efforts on raising and caring for larvae that are related to them, thus preserving the propagation of their genes and contributing to their inclusive fitness.