Red Dwarf-Honey Bee

Appearance

"A. florea" is called the dwarf honey bee due to its small size compared to other honeybees. A worker is typically 7–10 mm in body length and its overall coloration is red-brown. A colony builds a single, exposed comb usually on tree branches or shrubs. "A. florea" produce honey that is harvested and eaten in Thailand and Cambodia. They are excellent pollinators, which gives them an important ecological role in the places they inhabit. Drones carry a thumb-like bifurcation called the basitarsus, which is located two-thirds along the length of the tibia. The fimbriate lobe of "A. florea" has three protrusions and they sting using two stylet barbs.

"Apis florea" and its sister species together comprise the subgenus "Micrapis", and are the most primitive of the living species of "Apis", reflected in their small colony size, and simple nest construction. The exposed single combs are built on branches of shrubs and small trees. The forager bees do not perform a gravity-oriented waggle dance on the vertical face of the comb to recruit nestmates as in the domesticated "Apis mellifera" and other species. Instead, they perform the dance on the horizontal upper surface where the comb wraps around the supporting branch. The dance is a straight run pointing directly to the source of pollen or nectar the forager has been visiting. The distinctiveness of the two species "A. florea" and "A. andreniformis" was established unequivocally in the 1990s. "A. florea" is redder and old workers always have a red first abdomen; "A. andreniformis" is generally darker and the first abdomen segment is completely black in old bees. Distinguishing characteristics of the dwarf honey bees are outlined below:

Distribution

"A. florea" spans the continents of Asia and Africa and is most commonly seen in Southeastern Asia, the Northeastern part of India, China, and forested regions of the Middle East. "A. florea" reach a decision about a new nesting site via dancing. They decide on a site when the largest number of individuals dance in the direction of the new site. The workers use an auditory signal of piping to indicate a decision about a new site has been reached, with the top of the swarm lifting off into the air first, followed by the bottom of the swarm and then the middle reaching the air last, but all within one minute of the swarm’s initial lift off. Since dancing is a common mechanism of communicating about a new nesting site in both "A. florea" and "A. mellifera", it is suggested that this form of nest site selection evolved in the common ancestor of "Apis". However, "A. florea" do not re-evaluate a site before several individuals move to the new site like "A. mellifera" does. Instead, swarms travel to the new site as a group and leave to a new site if it is later discovered to be unsuitable. This makes searching for new sites a much faster process for "A. florea", but not necessarily more accurate.

"Apis florea" are found in southeastern Asian countries, especially in Thailand, Iran, Oman, United Arab Emirates, India, Myanmar, and some parts of China, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Since 1985 "Apis florea" is also found in Sudan. They live in forest habitats but they are also pollinators of tropical fruit crops in Thailand. "Apis florea" build exposed nests always with a single comb on a single branch. If they are building a new nest near to the old one, they salvage the wax from the old nest. Other species of honeybee do not exhibit this behavior, perhaps because of the risk of contaminating pathogens. This behavior is only observed in this species. Even within the species this behavior differs, the colonies that migrate less than 200 meters engage in wax recycling, but the colonies that migrate longer distances do not.

Behavior

As social bees, "A. florea" require a mechanism of communication, especially when conveying important spatial information about foraging, including direction and distance. The time elapsed during the waggle phase when a dancer moves forward while shaking the abdomen from side to side indicates the distance to a site. The longer the waggle phase, the longer the distance to a site and vice versa. In order to indicate direction, "A. florea" workers orient the waggle phase in the direction of the site, while dancing on the crow of the nest or swarm. The precision of dance does not depend on the type of site i.e. nest sites or food patches. In other words, "A. florea" do not change the precision of the waggle dance to indicate a goal is a nest site or food patch, unlike "A. mellifera", which do change precision when conveying information about food patches specifically. This suggests that "A. florea" do not prioritize nesting site nor food patch information by changing the precision of dance.

Habitat

"A. florea" spans the continents of Asia and Africa and is most commonly seen in Southeastern Asia, the Northeastern part of India, China, and forested regions of the Middle East. "A. florea" reach a decision about a new nesting site via dancing. They decide on a site when the largest number of individuals dance in the direction of the new site. The workers use an auditory signal of piping to indicate a decision about a new site has been reached, with the top of the swarm lifting off into the air first, followed by the bottom of the swarm and then the middle reaching the air last, but all within one minute of the swarm’s initial lift off. Since dancing is a common mechanism of communicating about a new nesting site in both "A. florea" and "A. mellifera", it is suggested that this form of nest site selection evolved in the common ancestor of "Apis". However, "A. florea" do not re-evaluate a site before several individuals move to the new site like "A. mellifera" does. Instead, swarms travel to the new site as a group and leave to a new site if it is later discovered to be unsuitable. This makes searching for new sites a much faster process for "A. florea", but not necessarily more accurate.

"Apis florea" are found in southeastern Asian countries, especially in Thailand, Iran, Oman, United Arab Emirates, India, Myanmar, and some parts of China, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Since 1985 "Apis florea" is also found in Sudan. They live in forest habitats but they are also pollinators of tropical fruit crops in Thailand. "Apis florea" build exposed nests always with a single comb on a single branch. If they are building a new nest near to the old one, they salvage the wax from the old nest. Other species of honeybee do not exhibit this behavior, perhaps because of the risk of contaminating pathogens. This behavior is only observed in this species. Even within the species this behavior differs, the colonies that migrate less than 200 meters engage in wax recycling, but the colonies that migrate longer distances do not.
Aside from their small size, simple exposed nests and simplified dance language, the lifecycle and behavior of this species is fairly similar to other species of "Apis". Workers of "A. florea", like those of the species "A. mellifera", also engage in worker policing, a process where nonqueen eggs are removed from the hive. Queenless "A. florea" colonies have been observed to merge with nearby queen-right "A. florea" colonies, suggesting workers are attracted to queen bee pheromones.

Reproduction

In a single patriline, more workers mean the colony will produce more drones. High mating frequency in "A. florea" has been evolutionarily selected for as observed in other members of the genus. The average lifespan of a drone is 15.6 days, ranging from 6–41 days. The queen has a much longer lifespan consistent with the longevity of the colony. "A. florea" have workers that police to ensure that workers’ eggs are destroyed at twice the rate of queens’ eggs using oophagy. The queens’ eggs are marked as to avoid destruction by worker bees. Since this behavior is also observed in "A. mellifera", this suggests that policing mechanism behaviors evolved before the divergence of the genus "Apis".

Food

"A. florea" adults eat primarily honey and nectar but also feed the brood on pollen. Future queens are fed royal jelly and are reared in larger cells so they become larger.

Predators

The most dominant predators for "Apis florea" are ants and other arthropods. Since "A. florea" use open-combs, they must protect their comb from the outside, specifically at site of a branch. They employ two lines of defense. The first is against any falling object like leaves or other debris. "A. florea" use the head-pushing technique to move obstructions. The second line of defense is against ants and other arthropods. They accomplish this by creating sticky or repellent barriers.

Defense

"A. florea" show highly specific social defense mechanisms when they sense predators nearby. For instance, they typically display hissing and shimmering behavior, in addition to nesting amidst dense foliage to camouflage themselves from potential predators. A more poignant example is the specific behavioral response they exhibit against their predominant predator, the "O. smaragdina" weaver ant. When these ants are in close proximity, the bees produce and deposit sticky barriers to obstruct their path. The guard bees take cover at this sticky zone and start to alert other bees using specific hissing sounds with the goal of preventing full blown raids by the ants. Over time, more bees are recruited to contribute to this sticky zone barrier which reinforces their defense.

Migration

"Apis florea" can migrate to a variety of diverse locations due to human introduction or of their own volition. It poses a threat to native insects like "Apis mellifera" because they compete for the same resources.