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Species
Apis mellifera Linnaeus, 1758
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The European honey bee, also known as the common or western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is so named because it produces large amounts of honey. It is believed that the honey bee originated in Africa and spread to northern Europe, India, and China. The honey bee is not native to North America, but was brought here with the first colonists. The honey bee is now distributed world wide.
European honey bees are variable in color, but are some shade of black or brown intermixed with yellow. The bee ranges from 3/8 to 3/4 of an inch long, with workers being the smallest and the queen being the largest. A queen bee is elongate and has a straight stinger with no barbs. A worker bee has hind legs specialized for collecting pollen - each leg is flattened and covered with long fringed hairs that form a pollen basket. A worker bee's stinger has barbs. A drone bee is stout-bodied and has large eyes.
Wild European honey bee nests are found in hollow trees or man-made structures. Managed colonies are often kept in wooden hives. Flowers in meadows, open woods, agricultural areas, and yards and gardens are visited by worker bees.
The honey bee is probably one of the best-known of all insects in the world (3); it performs a vital role in the pollination of flowering plants, including our crop species (4) . There are three 'castes' within a bee hive, a 'queen' (the reproductive female), the 'drones' (reproductive males) and 'workers' (non-reproductive females) (3). All three castes are broadly similar in appearance; the body is covered in short hairs, and is divided into a head, a thorax and an abdomen, the head features two large eyes and a pair of antennae. The thorax bears two pairs of wings above, and three pairs of legs below and there is a slender 'waist' between the thorax and abdomen (5). The queen has a much longer and slender abdomen than the workers, and the drones can be identified by their broader abdomens and much larger eyes (5).
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Source | http://www.arkive.org/honey-bee/apis-mellifera/ |
Honingbijen zijn de insecten die honing en was maken. Ze worden door imkers in korven of kasten gehouden. Een bijenvolk bestaat uit soms wel 50.000 dieren. De meeste zijn werksters, er zijn enkele honderden darren (mannetjes) en één koningin. Duinen en kwelders zijn geschikte voedselgebieden voor honingbijen.
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Honeybees are very important pollinators, and are the primary pollinator for many plants. Without honeybees, these plants have greatly reduced fertility. In North America and Australia, where there are no native bee species with large colonies, honeybees can have especially strong effects on native flowers, and on other pollinators such as solitary bee species. Honeybees ability to recruit fellow workers by “dancing” allows them to be more efficient than other pollinators at exploiting patches of flowers. This can create strong impacts on their competitors, especially solitary bees.
Like all social insects, honeybees are hosts to a variety of parasites, commensal organisms, and pathogenic microbes. Some of these can be serious problems for apiculture, and have been studied intensively. At least 18 types of viruses have been found to cause disease in bees, including Sacbrood disease. Several of them (but not sacbrood virus) are associated with parasitic mites. Bacteria infect bees, notably Bacillus larvae, agent of American Foulbrood disease, and Melissococcus pluton, agent of European Foulbrood. Fungi grow in bee hives, and Ascosphaera apis can cause Chalkbrood disease. One of the most common diseases in domesticated hives is Nosema disease, caused by a protozoan, Nosema apis. An amoeba, Malphigamoeba mellificae, also causes disease in honeybees.
In recent decades, two mite species have spread through domesticated and feral honeybee populations around the world. Acarapis woodi is a small mite species that lives in the tracheae of adult bees and feeds on bee hemolymph. It was first discovered in Europe, but its origin is unknown. Infestations of these mites weaken bees, and in cold climates, whole colonies may fail when the bees are confined in the hive during the winter. A much worse threat is Varroa destructor. This might evolved on an Asian honeybee, Apis cerana, but switched on to Apis mellifera colonies that were set up in east Asia. It has since spread all around the world, except Australia. Juvenile mites feed on bee larvae and pupae, and adult female mites feed and disperse on adult workers. This mite is known to spread several viruses as well. Infestations of V. destructor often wipe out colonies. Nearly all the feral, untended honeybee colonies in North American are believed to have been wiped out by mite infestations, along with a large proportion of domesticated colonies. Other mite species are known from honeybee colonies, but they are not considered harmful.
Another commensal or parasitic species is Braula coeca, the bee louse. Despite the common name, this is actually a wingless fly, that apparently feeds by intercepting food being transferred from one bee to another.
Beetles in the genera Hylostoma and Aethina are found in African honeybee nests, where they seem to do little harm. However, the "small hive beetle", Aethina tumida, has become a significant problem in European and North American hives. The larvae eat all the contents of comb: honey, pollen, and bee eggs and larvae.
Ecosystem Impact: pollinates; keystone species
Commensal/Parasitic Species:
- Melissococcus pluton (agent of European Foulbrood)
- Ascophaera apis (agent of Chalkbrood)
- honey bee tracheal mite Acarapis woodi
- a wax moth Galleria mellonella
- a wax moth Achroia grisella
- the small hive beetle Aethina tumida
- Varroa destructor
- bee louse Braula coeca
- large hive beetles Hylostoma
- small hive beetles Aethina
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Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2013, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
Source | http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Apis_mellifera/ |
Varying response thresholds aid hive thermoregulation: honeybee
Honeybees in a colony regulate hive temperature due to diverse response thresholds.
"A honey bee colony is characterized by high genetic diversity among its workers, generated by high levels of multiple mating by its queen. Few clear benefits of this genetic diversity are known. Here we show that brood nest temperatures in genetically diverse colonies (i.e., those sired by several males) tend to be more stable than in genetically uniform ones (i.e., those sired by one male). One reason this increased stability arises is because genetically determined diversity in workers' temperature response thresholds modulates the hive-ventilating behavior of individual workers, preventing excessive colony-level responses to temperature fluctuations." (Jones 2006:402)
Watch Video of Bees Fanning Hive
Learn more about this functional adaptation.
- Jones, J. C.; Myerscough, M. R.; Graham, S.; Oldroyd, B. P. 2004. Honey Bee Nest Thermoregulation: Diversity Promotes Stability. American Association for the Advancement of Science. 402-404 p.
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Rights holder/Author | (c) 2008-2009 The Biomimicry Institute |
Source | http://www.asknature.org/strategy/958ba5b01d37e6de7841c4b5d6bf9740 |
A widespread, usually domesticated species.
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Source | http://www.arkive.org/honey-bee/apis-mellifera/ |
Honey bees are insects which make honey and wax. They are held by beekeepers in hives or chests. A colony can consist of 50,000 animals: most of them are workers, a few hundred are drones (males) and one is the queen. Dunes and salt marshes are suitable food areas for honey bees.
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Honeybees have many adaptations for defense: Adults have orange and black striping that acts as warning coloration. Predators can learn to associate that pattern with a painful sting, and avoid them. Honeybees prefer to build their hives in protected cavities (small caves or tree hollows). They seal small openings with a mix of wax and resins called propolis, leaving only one small opening. Worker bees guard the entrance of the hive. They are able to recognize members of their colony by scent, and will attack any non-members that try to enter the hive. Workers and queens have a venomous sting at the end of the abdomen. Unlike queens, and unusual among stinging insects, the stings of Apis workers are heavily barbed and the sting and venom glands tear out of the abdomen, remaining embedded in the target. This causes the death of the worker, but may also cause a more painful sting, and discourage the predator from attacking other bees or the hive. A stinging worker releases an alarm pheromone which causes other workers to become agitated and more likely to sting, and signals the location of the first sting.
Honeybees are subject to many types of predators, some attacking the bees themselves, others consuming the wax and stored food in the hive. Some predators are specialists on bees, including honeybees.
Important invertebrate enemies of adult bees include crab spiders and orb-weaver spiders, wasps in the genus Philanthus (called “beewolves”), and many species of social wasps in the family Vespidae. Vespid wasp colonies are known to attack honeybee colonies en masse, and can wipe out a hive in one attack. Many vertebrate insectivores also eat adult honeybees. Toads (Bufo) that can reach the entrance of hive will sit and eat many workers, as will opossums (Didelphis). Birds are an important threat – the Meropidae (bee-eaters) in particular in Africa and southern Europe, but also flycatchers around the world (Tyrranidae and Muscicapidae). Apis mellifera in Africa are also subject to attack by honeyguides. These birds eat hive comb, consuming bees, wax, and stored honey. At least one species, the greater honeyguide (Indicator indicator) will guide mammal hive predators to hives, and then feed on the hive after the mammal has opened it up.
The main vertebrate predators of hives are mammals. Bears frequently attack the nests of social bees and wasps, as do many mustelids such as the tayra in the Neotropics and especially the honey badger of Africa and southern and western Asia. In the Western Hemisphere skunks, armadillos and anteaters also raid hives, as do pangolins (Manis) in Africa. Large primates, including baboons, chimpanzees (<>) and gorillas are reported to attack hives too. Smaller mammals such as mice (Mus) and rats (Rattus) will burrow into hives as well.
Some insects are predators in hives as well, including wax moth larvae (Galleria mellonella, Achroia grisella), and hive beetles (Hylostoma, Aethina), and some species of ants. In their native regions these tend not to be important enemies, but where honeybees have not co-evolved with these insects and have no defense, they can do great harm to hives.
See Ecosystem Roles section for information on honeybee parasites and pathogens.
Known Predators:
- Beewolves (Philanthus)
- Crab spiders (Thomisidae)
- vespid wasps (Vespidae)
- bee-eaters (Meropidae)
- honeyguides (Indicatoridae)
- bears (Ursidae)
- honey badgers (Mellivora capensis)
- skunks (Mephitidae)
- toads (Bufo)
Anti-predator Adaptations: aposematic
- Roubik, D. 1989. Ecology and natural history of tropical bees. New York City, New York, USA: Cambridge University Press.
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Rights holder/Author | ©1995-2013, The Regents of the University of Michigan and its licensors |
Source | http://animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Apis_mellifera/ |
Vibration creates heat: honeybee
Honeybees create heat in hives via thoracic vibrations.
"Researchers at the University of Würzburg in Germany found that bee hive temperatures were not only maintained by general hive activity, but also by workers congregating at the brood and vibrating their thoracic muscles to warm the incubating young. Some of the workers stay completely motionless on a brood cap for several minutes, pressing their thoraxes against the cap to warm the young within. But many of the bees occupy an empty cell amongst sealed brood cells, and take up residence, sometimes for over an hour. Here, they vibrate their thoracic muscles and reach temperatures up to 41°C. The bees' heat can be felt up to 3 chambers away, and their head warms the six surrounding chambers. Usually a single occupant is the only beneficiary from a worker perched above it on the comb." (Courtesy of the Biomimicry Guild)
Learn more about this functional adaptation.
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Source | http://www.asknature.org/strategy/f508bfed3a8b7070cd5056d9f1c3006d |
Natural populations of honey bees have been severely affected by the activities of humans (6). Non-native subspecies have been widely introduced to many areas of Europe, and managed colonies have often interbred with native bees, causing a loss of unique genetic diversity in local populations (6). In Germany the native race Apis mellifera mellifera is now thought to be extinct, as it has been completely replaced by the introduced Apis mellifera carnica (6). A more recent threat to the species in Britain is the mite Varroa jacobsoni, which is devastating honey bee populations around the world (4) and was first found in Britain in 1992. These mites attack larvae, pupae and adults (3) and are very expensive to control; in the last 15 years the expense involved has caused a worrying 40-45 % of beekeepers to abandon the craft. To make matters worse, strains of the mite with resistance to the chemicals used in their control have recently been found (4).
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Rights holder/Author | Copyright Wildscreen 2003-2008 |
Source | http://www.arkive.org/honey-bee/apis-mellifera/ |