Apis dorsata laboriosa

Cliff honey bee ( Apis laboriosa )

The cliff honey bee ( Apis laboriosa ), also called rock bee, is the largest of the nine world honey bee species. It builds a single 80 cm wide and 1 m long unprotected honeycomb, which they attached to steep cliffs. By collecting wild ( honey hunting ) their honey and their wax, wherein the honeycomb is destroyed, it is both in Nepal and in Tibet endangered and threatened with extinction.

The drawing of the bee is black with white abdomen rings.

Most folks wander between a summer and a winter location, often distance driven of 100 km. The winter time, which is about seven months from October to April, she spends at low altitudes from 850 m to more temperate. There bee plants such as black mustard, Eupatorium odoratum and Fagopyrum encountered sagittum. During this time, the colonies suffer huge losses due to the use of pesticides which operated at these altitudes agriculture.

In May, when the temperature reaches 25 ° C, hike the cliff honey bees for 5 months until the end of September in the subalpine zone between 2500-3000 meters. There they fly on eg Ridhilo and rhododendron species.

System

According to a publication of Engel (1999 ) is at the cliff honey bee is not a separate species, but only a subspecies ( race) of the giant honeybee ( Apis dorsata ). Nevertheless, in many recent publications nor the previous Latin name Apis Apis dorsata laboriosa and not laboriosa is used.

Film

• Roger Webb ( Producer, Director ): Nepalese honey hunters - In search of the sweet gold ( eng. Original Title: Natural World ' Jimmy and the Honey Hunters of Nepal '); Documentary filmmaker Roger Webb accompanies the young British Beekeepers Jimmy Doherty on a trip to the honey hunters of Nepal. The millennia- old techniques of honey hunting, rappelling down a hundred meters high slopes and the release of the honeycomb of bees cliff of rock curtains with long poles is held documentary.