The Cape honey bee is unique among honey bee subspecies because workers can lay diploid, female eggs, by means of thelytoky,[1] while workers of other subspecies (and, in fact, unmated females of virtually all other eusocial insects) can only lay haploid, male eggs.

[3] In 1990 beekeepers transported Cape honey bees into northern South Africa, where they do not occur naturally.

[6] A behavioral consequence of the thelytoky phenotype is queen pheromonal mimicry, which means the parasitic workers can sneak their eggs in to be raised with those from the African bees.

[12] The low recombination rate in automictic oocytes favors maintenance of heterozygosity and the avoidance of inbreeding depression.

[13] Although the species is officially classified as "not threatened" concerns exist that the subspecies might be declining in its natural range in the Western Cape.

Threats to the subspecies include reduced access to flowering plants for forage, disease, parasites, and the use of pesticides and insecticides.

[17] South African non-profit Honeybee Heroes' Adopt-A-Hive initiative is a conservation project for the Cape honey bee.