African bee

East African highlands bee ( Apis mellifera scutellata )

The East African highlands bee, Apis mellifera scutellata, is a subspecies of the Western honey bee, Apis mellifera. Its distribution area is the African bush and grass savannah of Kenya, Tanzania and South Africa with altitudes ranging from 500 to over 2000 meters.

Taxonomy

The Apis mellifera divided into four racial groups, which ( on the basis of mitochondrial DNA sequences) are morphologically and genetically distinct and separate from each other each of which has a distribution: The Western European, Eastern European and African bees and the bees in the Middle East. Before the intervention of man, it is believed that these were separated and vicarious distribution patterns exhibited. The bees of tropical Africa were predominantly associated with a broad breed that was called Apis mellifera adansonii. These differ from the northern races through reduced body size, stronger yellow orange tinted color and a set of behavioral characteristics.

Subsequent analyzes showed that African bees this great region have among themselves stronger differences that can be differentiated against each other as races or subspecies. The allocation to these subspecies, however, is complex and not possible on the basis of expression of individual characteristics, but many features need to be set off against each other morphometrically, as the expression eg allometrically depends on the body size of the individual. Today, the combination of the following factors for the African bees used: length of the guard hairs on the tergites, snout length ( Proboscis ), width of the wax plates on the third Stermit, coloration of the scutellum, staining the Scutellarplatte, staining of the second Tergits and four angles of cells of the wing. As a result, the bees of the East African highlands may be taken as its own form of Apis mellifera scutellata. Its distribution area is bordered to the west by the of adansonii ( in the modern sense ), in the lowlands of the coastal country of litorea and to the south by South Africa to that of capensis. The populations of the higher mountains are formed from another, unnamed form (which does not coincide with the subspecies monticola the central African mountains).

" Africanized " honeybee America

A special notoriety reached the A.M. scutellata not by their African habitat, but according to its spread in South and Central America. Through the bee researcher Warwick Kerr, it was introduced for breeding experiments in Brazil in the 1950s and has become widely spread in the warmer regions of the Americas uncontrollably as so-called Africanized honey bee. As this form began to spread to North America, there was the public greatly respected and notorious rapidly through biased coverage of so-called "killer bees". The " Africanized " honeybee America carries genetic studies suggest, to about eighty percent of the genetic material scutellata subspecies. A low but constant proportion of 20 ( 30 percent) comes from Europe (mainly Western European ) races of bees. The form is at crossings to the dominant European races and displaces it from for them climatically suitable areas ( America does not have a honey bee species).

Ecology and behavior

Compared to the European races of bees, the African honey bees to a number of special features that arise from the demands of their habitat. Due to the higher predator (predator ) density they are more aggressive towards approaches to the nest, which they perceive as a threat. In addition, they are more mobile: In addition to swarm in the production of young queens they also move at other times often the nest site. Such migration swarms occur, for example, on during starvation, unfavorable microclimatic conditions on Niststandort, interference by predators. Smaller swarms can go aggregate into large flocks, the excess queens are eliminated.

Terms and beekeeping

Apis mellifera scutellata is used by the indigenous population of their home areas for beekeeping for a long time. Because of behavioral differences, however, another tradition of using it has emerged. The bees are not bred, but captured wild swarms and used. These art nests are built from tree bark or hollowed trunks and spread with long poles in treetops. Your reference is provided by migrating bees looking for a cheap new location. Due to the height of the destruction of the nest is prevented by many predators and reduces the risk of an encounter with the aggressive animals. Despite the very extensive production of honey yield is very high.

In summary, the main differences compared to the European races of bees:

• More aggressive behavior during disturbances. Even with interference at a certain distance from the hive the bees attack alleged attackers and track them sometimes over distances of sometimes more than a kilometer.
• At about three times greater willingness piercing they administered ten times more stitches at about 30% less poison strength.
• Fewer bees per colony, because no long winter is to survive.
• Very high tendency to swarm, five to eight schools per year are not uncommon.
• The tendency to relatively quickly abandon the entire nest and settle in another place.
• A daily laying rate of up to 4000 eggs and thus a very rapid colony development.
• The development time of 18 instead of 21 days from egg to worker, resulting in resistance to the varroa mite.
• Resistance to American foulbrood.
• Higher honey production.

See also: Breeds of the Western honey bee