Apis cerana
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Apis cerana, or the Asiatic honeybee (or the Eastern honeybee), are small honeybees of southern and southeastern Asia, such as China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Nepal, Bangladesh and Papua New Guinea. This species is the sister species of Apis koschevnikovi, and both are in the same subgenus as the European honeybee, Apis mellifera.
In the wild, they prefer to nest in small spaces, such as hollowed out tree trunks. Like the European honeybee, they are sometimes domesticated and used in apiculture, mostly in wooden boxes with fixed frames. Their size is similar or somewhat smaller than Apis mellifera, and they also have a more prominent abdominal stripes. Their honey yield is smaller, because they form smaller colonies. Their beeswax is used to treat and heal wounds.
Apis cerana is the natural host to the mite Varroa destructor, a serious pest of the European honeybee. Having coevolved with this mite, A. cerana exhibits more careful grooming than A. mellifera, and thus has an effective defense mechanism against Varroa that keeps the mite from devastating colonies. Other than defensive behaviors such as these, much of their behavior and biology (at least in the wild) is very similar to that of A. mellifera.
- Thermal defense: When their hive is invaded by the Japanese giant hornet (Vespa mandarinia), about 500 Japanese honeybees (A. cerana japonica) surround the hornet and vibrate their flight muscles until the temperature is raised to 47°C (117°F), heating the hornet to death, but still under their own lethal limit (48-50°C).
left Apis mellifera, right Apis cerana
Subspecies
(following Engel, 1999).- Apis cerana cerana ( = "sinensis") - Afghanistan, Pakistan, north India, China and north Vietnam
- Apis cerana heimifeng
- Apis cerana indica - South India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Burma, Malaysia, Indonesia and the Philippines
- Apis cerana japonica - Japan
- Apis cerana javana
- Apis cerana johni
- Apis cerana nuluensis
- Apis cerana skorikovi ( = "himalaya") - Central and east Himalayan mountains (Ruttner, 1987)
Sources
- [BIODIVERSITY OF HONEYBEES], M.R.Srinivasan, Department of Agricultural Entomology - Tamil Nadu Agricultural University accessed Oct 2005
- Engel, M.S. (1999) The taxonomy of recent and fossil honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Apis). Journal of Hymenoptera Research 8: 165-196.
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