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Although related, Cataglyphis floricola and Cataglyphis tartessica show very different responses to colony orphaning. In the laboratory, under queenless conditions, C. tartessica workers produced male offspring via arrhenotoky, while C. floricola workers produced female offspring, including new queens, via thelytoky. Both species have workers with active ovaries that produce trophic eggs. In the field, in the late spring, C. floricola colonies were more likely to be orphaned than were C. tartessica colonies, probably due to differences in how they performed fission, their colony foundation system. The combined action of these two features could explain the presence of thelytoky in C. floricola and its absence in C. tartessica.