The western honey bee or European honey bee ( Apis mellifera ) is the most common of the 7-12 species of honey bees around the world. The genus name Apis is Latin for "bee", and mellifera is Latin for "honey-bearing", referring to the production of honey species for the winter.
Like all honeybees, western honey bees are eusocial, creating colonies with one fertile female (or "queen"), many females are usually non-reproductive or "workers," and a small proportion of the fertile male or "drone." Individual colonies can accommodate tens of thousands of bees. Colonial activity is governed by complex communication between individuals, both through pheromones and dance languages.
Western honeybee is one of the first pet insects, and is the main species that beekeepers raise to this day for both honey production and pollination activities. With human help, western honey bees now occupy every continent except Antarctica. Due to extensive cultivation, this species is the most important pollinator for agriculture globally. Honey bees are threatened by pests and diseases, especially varroa mites and colony colony disorders.
Western honey bees are important model organisms in scientific studies, particularly in the areas of social evolution, learning, and memory; they are also used in studies of pesticide toxicity, to assess the impact of non-targeted commercial pesticides.
Video Western honey bee
Distribution and habitat
Western bee bees can be found on every continent except Antarctica. This species is believed to have originated in Africa or Asia, from which it spread throughout Africa, the Middle East and Europe. Humans are responsible for considerable additional coverage, introducing European subspecies to North America (early 1600s), South America, Australia, New Zealand, and East Asia.
Western honey bees are adapted to the local environment as they spread geographically. These adaptations include synchronizing the colony cycle to local flower resource time, forming winter clusters in cold climates, migrating migration in Africa, and increased foraging behavior in the desert region. Overall, this variation produces 28 recognized subspecies, all of which are cross-fertile. The subspecies are divided into four main branches, based on work by Ruttner and confirmed by mitochondrial DNA analysis. The African subspecies include branch A, subspecies of northwestern Europe branch M, subspecies of western European branches, and sub-branches of Middle East O.
Maps Western honey bee
Biological and Life Cycles
Colonial life circuitUnlike most other bee species, honeybees have enduring colonies that last from year to year. Because of this high level of sociality and sustainability, honeybee colonies can be considered superorganisms, which means that the reproduction of colonies, rather than individual bees, is a unit that is biologically very important. Honeybee colonies multiply through a process called "huddle".
In most climates, western honey bees crowded in the spring and early summer, when there are many flowers in bloom to collect nectar and pollen. In response to these favorable conditions, the nest creates one to two dozen new queens. Just as the cocoon stage of the "princess queen" is almost complete, the old queen and about two-thirds of the adult worker leave the colonies in the herd, travel long distances to find new locations suitable for building nests (eg, hollow tree trunks). In the old colony, queen princesses often begin "plumbing", just before emerging as an adult, and, when the queen princess finally appears, they fight each other until there is only one left; the victim then becomes the new queen. If one sister appears before the other, she may kill her siblings while they are still pupae, before they have a chance to appear as adults.
As soon as he sends his rival, the new queen, the only fertile woman, puts all the eggs for the old colony, which her mother left behind. The female virgin is able to spawn, which develops into males (a trait divided by wasps, bees, and ants due to haplodiploidy). However, it requires couples to produce female offspring, consisting of 90% or more bees in the colony at any given time. Thus, the new queen goes on one or more marriage flights, each time mating with 1-17 drones. Once he's done marrying, usually within two weeks of appearing, he stays in the nest, laying eggs.
Throughout the rest of the growing season, the colony produces many workers, who collect pollen and nectar as winter food; the average population of healthy nests in mid-summer may be as high as 40,000 to 80,000 bees. The nectar of the flowers is processed by worker bees, which evaporate until the moisture content is low enough to prevent the fungus, turning it into honey, which can then be covered with wax and stored almost indefinitely. In temperate regions where western honey bees are adapted, bees gather in their nests and wait for winter, where queens can stop laying eggs. During this time, activity is slow, and colonies use honey storage used for metabolic heat production in winter. In the mid to late winter, the queen begins laying again. This may be triggered by the length of the day. Depending on the subspecies, new queens (and flocks) can be produced annually, or less frequently, depending on local environmental conditions.
The individual bee life cycle
Like other insects experiencing complete metamorphosis, western honey bees have four different stages of life: eggs, larvae, pupae and adults. The complex social structure of the hives of honeybees means that all these stages of life occur simultaneously throughout the year. The Queen keeps one egg to every cell prepared by worker bees. Eggs hatch into eyeless and non-eye larvae fed by the "nurse" bees (worker bees who keep the inside of the colony). After about a week, the larvae are sealed in the cell by the nurse's bees and begin to stage the cocoon. After one week, he appears as an adult bee. It is common for certain areas of the comb to be filled with young bees (also called "muses"), while others are filled with pollen and honey shops.
Workers' bees secrete candles used to build nests, cleanse, nurture and look after them, raise young and seek nectar and pollen, and the nature of the role of the worker varies with age. During the first ten days of their lives, the worker bees clean up the nest and feed the larvae. After this, they start building the comb cells. On days 16 to 20, workers receive nectar and pollen from older workers and keep it. After the 20th day, a worker leaves the nest and spends the rest of his life as an explorer. Although worker bees are usually barren females, when some subspecies are emphasized they may lay fertile eggs. Since workers are not fully developed sexually, they are not paired with drones and thus can only produce haploid offspring (male).
Queens and workers have a modified ovipositor, a stinger, with which they maintain the nest. Unlike bees from other genera and queens of their own species, bees are thorny workers. Contrary to popular belief, bees do not always die immediately after stinging; This misconception is based on the fact that bees will usually die after stung human or other mammals. Stinger and its poison pouch, with muscles and ganglion that allow them to continue to deliver the toxins once released, is designed to pull freely from the body while they are staying. This equipment (including barbs on the stinger) is thought to have evolved in response to predation by vertebrates, since barbs do not work (and the stinger apparatus is not detached) unless the stinger is embedded in the elastic material. The grip does not always "catch", so bees can sometimes pull the stinger away freely and fly unscathed (or sting again).
Although the queen's average age in most subspecies is three to five years, reports from the German-European black bee subspecies previously used for beekeeping show that a queen can live for up to eight years. Since the queen's sperm supplies run out toward the end of his life, he begins to lay more unfertilized eggs; for this reason, beekeepers often replace the queen every year or two.
Workers' age varies greatly throughout the year in regions with long winters. Workers born in spring and summer will work hard, live for only a few weeks, but those born in autumn will remain inside for several months as a colony group. On average throughout the year, about one percent of the colony worker bees die naturally per day. Except for the queen, all colony workers are replaced every four months.
Social caste
The behavioral and physiological differences between castes and subcasts arise from phenotypic plasticity, which depends on gene expression rather than inherited genotype differences.
Queens
The queen of bees is a fertile woman, who, unlike the worker (who is genetically female as well), has a fully developed reproductive channel. He is bigger than his worker, and has the characteristic round, longer stomach. Female eggs can be queens or worker bees. Workers and queens are fed royal jelly, which is high in protein and low in flavonoids, during the first three days of their larval stage. Workers then turn to mixed pollen and nectar diets (often called "bee buns"), while the queen will continue to receive royal jelly. In the absence of flavonoids and the presence of high-protein diets, queen bees develop healthy reproductive tracts - the task necessary to maintain the colonies of tens of thousands of child laborers.
Periodically, the colony determines that a new queen is required. There are three common causes:
- The nest is filled with honey, leaving little room for the new egg. This will trigger the herd, where the old queen will eat about half the worker bees to find a new colony and leave the new queen with the other half of the worker to continue the old one.
- The old queen begins to fail, which is assumed to be shown by the decline of pheromone queens throughout the nest. This is known as supersedure, and by the end the supersedure of the old queen is generally killed.
- The old queen dies suddenly, a situation known as emergency supersedure. Workers' bees find several eggs (or larvae) of the appropriate age range and attempt to expand them into queens. Emergency supersedure is generally recognizable because new queen cells are built from the comb cells, rather than hanging from the bottom of the frame.
Regardless of the trigger, workers develop larvae into queens by continuing to feed their royal jelly.
Queens is not raised in horizontal stem cells typical of honeycomb. The queen cell is larger and vertically oriented. If the workers feel that the old queen is weakening, they produce emergency cells (known as supersedure cells) made from eggs or young larvae and protrude from the comb. When the queen finishes feeding the larvae and her children, she moves to the head position down and then chews her way out of the cell. At the time of the pupil, the worker sealed (seal) the cell. The queen asserts control over the worker bees by releasing a collection of complex pheromones known as the queen's scent.
After a few days of orientation inside and around the nest, the young queen flies to the point of the drone congregation - a site near clearing and generally about 30 feet (9.1 m) above the ground - where drones from different nests gather. They detect the presence of a queen in their court area by her smell, finding her with a view and mating with her in the air; drones can be induced to mate with a queen "dummy" with a queen of pheromones. A queen will marry several times, and may go to mate for several days in a row (if weather permits) until her spermatheca is full.
The Queen put all the eggs in a healthy colony. The number and rate of egg laying is controlled by weather, resource availability and specific racial characteristics. Queens generally start slow lay eggs in early fall, and may stop during the winter. Egg spawn generally begins at the end of winter when the days extend, peaking in the spring. At the height of the season, the queen can put more than 2,500 eggs per day (more than her body mass).
He cultivates every egg (with sperm stored from spermatheca) as it is placed in a worker-sized cell. Eggs placed in drone-sized cells (larger) are left unfertilized; This unfertilized egg, with half a gene as many queens or worker eggs, develops into a drone.
Worker
Workers are women produced by queens who develop from fertilized and diploid eggs. Workers are essential to proper social structure and colony function. They carry out the main task of the colony, because the queen is occupied only by reproducing. The females will raise their future sisters and queens who eventually leave the nest to start their own colonies. They also searched for food and returned to the nest with nectar and pollen to feed the children.
Drone
Drone is the colony's bees. Since they do not have an ovipositor, they do not have stinger. Drone honeybee is not looking for food for nectar or pollen. The main purpose of the drone is to fertilize the new queen. Many drones will mate with the queen given in flight; each will die soon after marriage, because the process of insemination requires a very hard effort. Drone honeybees are haploids (single chromosomes, unpaired) in their genetic structure, and are simply derived from their mother (queen). In temperate regions drones are generally excluded from nests before winter, freezing to death and starving because they can not feed, produce honey or take care of themselves. There has been research on the role of A. mellifera drone playing in thermoregulation inside the hive. Given its larger size (1.5x), drones can play an important role. Drones are usually located near the center of the nest group for reasons that are not clear. It was postulated that it was to maintain sperm viability, which decreased at cooler temperatures. Another possible explanation is that a more central location allows the drones to contribute to warmth, because at temperatures below 25 ° C their ability to contribute decreases.
Worker-queen conflicts
When a fertile female worker produces drones, a conflict arises between her interests and the interests of the queen. Workers share half of their genes with drones and a quarter with their brothers, supporting their offspring rather than queens. The queen split half her genes with her sons and a quarter with the sons of the fertile female laborers. It pits workers against queens and other workers, who try to maximize their reproductive fitness by raising the offspring most closely related to them. This relationship leads to a phenomenon known as "workers policing". In this rare situation, the other worker bees in the nest genetically linked to the queen's son rather than the fertile workers will patrol the nest and throw away the eggs the workers put down. Another form of worker-based policing is aggression against infertile women. Several studies have suggested pheromones of queens that can help workers to differentiate worker eggs and queens, but others show the viability of eggs as a key factor in eliciting behavior. Labor policing is an example of forced altruism, where the benefits of worker reproduction are minimized and the maintenance of the queen's offspring is maximized.
In very rare cases, workers subvert the nest system policing, laying down the eggs issued at a lower tariff by other workers; this is known as anarchic syndrome. Anarchist workers may activate their ovaries at a higher rate and contribute more in males to the nest. Although an increase in the number of drones will decrease the overall productivity of the hive, maternal reproductive fitness of the drones will increase. Anarchist syndrome is an example of selection that works in opposite directions at the individual and group level for nest stability.
In ordinary circumstances, the death (or removal) of a queen increases the reproduction of the worker, and most workers will have active ovaries in the absence of a queen. The workers from the nest produce the last batch of drones before the nest collapses. Although during this period workers policing usually does not exist, in certain groups of bees continues.
According to the family selection strategy, worker policing is not preferred if a queen does not marry several times. Workers will be associated with three-quarters of their genes, and the differences in relationships between the queen's sons and the other workers will be reduced. The benefits of policing are abolished, and the police are less favored. Experiments confirming this hypothesis have shown a correlation between higher marriage rates and increased levels of worker policing in many social hymenoptera species.
Behavior
Thermoregulation
Honeybees require internal body temperature 35Ã, Â ° C (95Ã, Â ° F) to fly; This temperature is maintained in the nest to develop the mother, and is the optimal temperature for the creation of wax. Temperatures at the edges of the cluster vary with outside air temperature, and the winter cluster's internal temperature can be as low as 20-22 Â ° C (68-72 Â ° F).
Honeybees can feed on the air temperature range of 30 ° C (86 ° F) due to the behavioral and physiological mechanisms to regulate the temperature of their flight muscles. From low to high temperatures, the mechanisms are: shivering before flying, and stopping the flight to shiver; regulation of passive body temperature on the basis of labor, and evaporative cooling of the contents of the purged sac honey. The body temperature is different, depending on the caste and is expected to feed.
The optimal air temperature for feeding is 22-25 Â ° C (72-77 Â ° F). During flight, relatively large flying muscles produce heat that must disappear. Honeybees use evaporative coolers to release heat through their mouths. In hot conditions, the heat from the thorax is dissipated through the head; the bees inject the warm internal liquid droplets - "droplets of honey" - which reduces the temperature of its head by 10 Ã, Â ° C (18Ã, Â ° F).
Below 7-10 ° C (45-50 Â ° F) bees move, and above 38 Â ° C (100 Â ° F) their activity slows down. Honeybees can tolerate temperatures up to 50 ° C (122 ° F) for a short time.
Communications
Bee honey behavior has been studied extensively, because bees are widespread and familiar. Karl von Frisch, who received the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his study of honeybee communication, notes that bees communicate with dance. Through these dances, the bees communicate information about the distance, the situation, and the direction of the food source with the returning bees (bee honey) dance on the vertical nest comb. Honey bees direct other bees to the food source with a round dance and dance sway. Although the round dance tells the other gatherers that food is within 50 meters (160 feet) of the nest, it provides enough information about directions. The swaying dance, which may be vertical or horizontal, provides more detail about the distance and direction of the food source. Employers are also considered to rely on their sense of smell to help find food sources after they are directed by dance. Unlike A. mellifera , Apis florea does not alter the accuracy of the waggle dance to indicate the type of site designated as a new destination. Therefore, Apis mellifera bees are better at relaying information than closely related species and this further supports the idea that A. mellifera honeybees evolved more than Apis florea .
Other communication means is a shaky signal, also known as a jerky dance, vibration dance or vibration signal. Although trembling signals are most common in workers' communication, it is also evident in reproductive societies. A worker's bee shakes his body dorsoventral while holding another bee with his front leg. Jacobus Biesmeijer, who examined the trembling signal in the life of the forecaster and the conditions leading to his performance, found that the experienced forager executed 92.1 percent of the shaky signal observed and 64 percent of the signal was performed after the discovery of the food source. About 71 percent of shaky signals occur before the first five successful first day-feeding flights; Other communication signals, such as swaying dance, are performed more often after the first five successes. Biesmeijer pointed out that most shakers are collectors and shaking signals most often done by searching bees in pre-foraging bees, concluding that it is a transfer message for some activity (or activity level). Sometimes signals increase activity, such as when the active bee shakes the inactive. At other times, such as the end of the day, the signal is the inhibiting mechanism. However, the shaky signal is preferentially directed at the inactive bees. The three forms of communication among honeybees are effective in feeding and task management.
Pheromones
Pheromones (substances involved in chemical communication) are essential for the survival of honeybees. Honeybees rely on pheromones for almost any behavior, including marriage, alarm, defense, orientation, relatives and colony recognition, food production and integrating colony activities.
Domestication
Honeybees are one of the few animals that have been tamed invertebrates. Humans collect wild honey in the Palaeolithic or Mesolithic period, with evidence of French and Spanish rock art of about 8,000 years. Bees were probably first domesticated in ancient Egypt, where tomb paintings depict beekeeping. Europeans brought bees to North America in 1622.
Beekeepers have selected bees for some of the desired features:
- the ability of colonies to survive with little food
- the ability of colonies to survive in cold weather
- resistance to disease
- increased honey production
- reduces aggressiveness
- reduces the tendency to cluster
- reduce nest build
- easily calmed down with smoke
This modification, together with artificial location changes, has increased the bees from the point of view of the bees keeper, and simultaneously makes them more dependent on beekeepers for their survival. In Europe, survival with cold weather is likely to be chosen, consciously or not, while in Africa, selection may be preferable to survival from heat, drought, and heavy rain.
The authors disagree as to whether this level of artificial selection constitutes indigenous domestication. In 1603, John Guillim wrote, "Bee, I might think of a Domestic Insect, so flexible with the Guard's Benefits." Recently, many biologists working on pollination take on the status of honeyed bees. For example, Rachael Winfree and colleagues wrote "We use plant pollination as a model system, and investigate whether the loss of pet pollin (honeybee) can be compensated by the original wild bee species." Similarly, Brian Dennis and William Kemp wrote: "Although the domestication of honeybees is closely related to the evolution of a food-based socio-economic system in many cultures around the world, in current economic terms, and in the US alone, the estimate of the wholesale value of honey, more than $ 317 million in 2013, compared to the aggregate annual estimated value of pollination services, with values ​​of $ 11-15 billion. "
On the other hand, P. R. Oxley and B. P. Oldroyd (2010) consider the domestication of bees best in part. Oldroyd observes that the lack of full domestication is somewhat surprising, given that people have beeneing for at least 7000 years. Instead, the beekeeper has found a way to manage the bees using the nest, while the bees remain "largely unchanged from their wild cousins". Leslie Bailey and BV Ball, in their book Honey Bee Pathology, call honey bees "wild bugs", unlike the silkworms (Bombyx mori ) they call "the only tamed insects, "and refers to" popular belief among many biologists and bee-tamed beekeepers ". They argue that honeybees can survive without human help, and in fact need to be "left free" to survive. They further argue that even if bees can be raised from the wild, they still have to fly freely to collect nectar and pollinate the plants. Therefore, they argue, beekeeping is "exploitation of wild insect colonies", with little more than the provision of weather-resistant cavities for them to nest. Pilar de la Rua and colleagues also argue that honeybees are not entirely domesticated, since "specific genetic specific subspecies are still identifiable in Europe and Africa", making conservation of wild bee diversity important. They further argue that the difficulty of controlling the drone for mating is a serious defect and a sign that domestication is incomplete, in particular as "extensive gene flow usually occurs between populations of wild/wild and managed bees."
Beekeeping
Honeybees are colonial insects that are collected, transported by and sometimes fed by beekeepers. Honeybees do not survive and reproduce individually, but as part of a colony (a superorganism).
The honeybees collect the nectar of flowers and turn them into honey, which is stored in the nest. Nectar, transported in a bee stomach, is altered by the addition of digestive enzymes and storage in honey cells to partial dehydration. Nectar and honey provide energy for bees fly muscles and to heat the nest during winter. Honeybees also collect pollen, which after being processed into bee protein and fat supply for bees to grow. Centuries of selective breeding by humans have created bees that produce far more honey than the needs of colonies, and beekeepers (also known as fire) harvest surplus honey.
Beekeepers provide a place for colonies to live and store honey. There are seven basic types of honeycomb: skeptic, itchy Langstroth, top-bar nest, box nest, wooden sap, D. E. nest, and honeycomb. All US states require beekeepers to use a moving frame to allow the inspector of the bees to examine the parent. This allows beekeepers to keep Langstroth, top-bar and D.E. nests without special permission, are granted for purposes such as the use of museums. Modern beehives also allow beekeepers to transport bees, moving from field to field because plants need pollination (a source of income for beekeepers).
In cold climates, some beekeepers have kept the colony alive (with varying degrees of success) by moving them indoors for winter. Although this can protect the colony from extreme temperatures and make winter treatments and feed more comfortably for beekeepers, this increases the risk of dysentery and causes excessive accumulation of carbon dioxide from bee respiration. The inner winter has been perfected by Canadian beekeepers, who use a huge barn just for bee winters; Automated ventilation systems help spread carbon dioxide.
Products
Honey bee
The main product of honey bee more bee honey. Honeybees are purchased as queens mated, in a spring packet of queens with 2 to 5 pounds (0.91-2.27 kg) of bees, as the core colony (which includes the parent framework) and as a full colony. Bee trade dates to prehistoric, and modern methods of producing queens and dividing colonies to increase dates to the late 1800s. Bees are usually produced in temperate to tropical regions and sold to colder areas; bee packages produced in Florida are sold to beekeepers in Michigan.
Pollination
The main commercial value of honeybees is as a pollinator of plants. Although gardens and fields are increasing in size, wild pollinators have been reduced. In some areas, pollination deficiency is targeted by migratory bee breeders, who supply the nest during flowering plants and move it after the bloom period. Commercial beekeepers plan their winter movements and locations according to the anticipated pollination service. At higher latitudes, it is difficult (or impossible) for the winter compared to sufficient bees, or preparing it for plants that bloom earlier. Many migrations are seasonal, with winter hives in warm climates and moving following blooms at higher latitudes. At California almond pollination occurs in February, early in the planting season before the local nest has built up their population.
The Almond Garden takes two nests per acre (2,000 mÃ,² per nest) for maximum yield, and pollination depends on importing nests from warm climates. Pollination of almonds (in February and March in the United States) is the largest managed pollination event in the world, requiring more than a third of all honey bees managed in the country. Mass movement of bees is also made for apples in New York, Michigan, and Washington. Despite the inefficiency of honeybees as blueberry pollinators, large quantities are transferred to Maine as they are the only pollinators that can be easily transferred and concentrated to these and other monoculture crops. Bees and other insects maintain the interest of the flowers by transferring pollen to other biologically specific plants; this prevents clogged flower stigma with pollen from other species.
Honey
Honey is a complex substance made from nectar and sweet sediments from plants and trees that are collected, modified and stored in a comb by honeybees. Honey is a biological mixture of inverse sugar, especially glucose and fructose. It has antibacterial and antifungal properties. Honey from Western honey bees, along with bees Tetragonisca angustula , has specific antibacterial activity against infectious bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus . Honey will not rot or ferment if stored under normal conditions, but will crystallize over time. Although crystallized honey is acceptable for human use, bees can only use liquid honey and will dispose of and remove the honey crystallized from the nest.
Bees produce honey by collecting nectar, a clear liquid consisting of nearly 80 percent water and complex sugar. The bees collect the nectar store in the second stomach and return to the nest, where the worker bee emits nectar. Working bees digest raw nectar for about 30 minutes, using enzymes to break down complex sugars into simpler sugars. Raw honey is then dispersed in empty honeycomb cells to dry, reducing its water content to less than 20 percent. When the nectar is being processed, the honeybee makes the concept through the nest by fanning its wings. When the honey is dry, the honeycomb cells are sealed (closed) with wax to preserve it.
Beeswax
Adult bees work secrete beeswax from the glands in their stomach, using it to form walls and caps from the comb. When honey is harvested, wax can be collected for use in products such as candles and seals.
Bee pollen or bee bread
The bees collect pollen in a pollen basket and bring it back to the nest, where after undergoing fermentation and turn into bee bread into a source of protein for livestock raising. Excess pollen can be collected from the nest; although sometimes taken as a dietary supplement by humans, bee pollen can cause allergic reactions in susceptible individuals.
Propolis
Propolis is a mixture of resins collected by honeybees from tree buds, gum streams or other botanical sources, which are used as sealants for unwanted open spaces in the nest. Although propolis is thought to have health benefits (tincture Propolis is marketed as a cold and flu drug), propolis can cause severe allergic reactions in some individuals. Propolis is also used in wooden touches, and gives the Stradivarius a unique red violin.
Royal jelly
Royal jelly is a secretion of honey bees used to nourish the larvae. It is marketed because of its claim about the alleged but unsupported health benefits. On the other hand, it can cause severe allergic reactions in some individuals.
Genome
On October 28, 2006, the Sequencing Honey Bee Genome Consortium was fully sequential and analyzed the genome of Apis mellifera . Since 2007, attention has been devoted to colony collapse disorders, the decline of European honey bee colonies in a number of areas.
European honey bees are the third insect, after fruit flies and mosquitoes, to map the genome. According to scientists analyzing its genetic code, honeybees originate in Africa and spread to Europe in two ancient migrations. Scientists have found that the genes associated with odors are much more than those in taste, and European honey bees have fewer genes that regulate immunity than fruit flies and mosquitoes. The genome sequence also reveals that some gene groups, especially those related to circadian rhythms, are similar to more vertebrates than other insects. Another important finding from the study of bee honey is that honeybees are the first insects found with functional methylation DNA systems because functional key enzymes (DNA methyl-transferase 1 and 3) are identified in the genome. DNA methylation is one of the important mechanisms in epigenetics to study gene expression and regulation without altering DNA sequences, but modifications to DNA. DNA methylation was then identified to play an important role in gene regulation and grafting of gene alternatives. This genome is unusual because it has several movable elements, although they exist in the past evolution (inactive residues have been found) and evolved more slowly than those in the fly species.
Hazards and survival
Europe's honey bee populations face a threat to their survival, increasing interest in other pollinating species such as impatiens . The populations of North America and Europe were greatly reduced by the attacks of varroa-mites during the early 1990s, and US beekeepers were further influenced by the disruption of colonies of colonies in 2006 and 2007. The improvement of cultural practices and chemical treatments on varroa mite saved most commercial operations; New bee breeds begin to reduce dependence on beekeepers on acaricides. The population of wild bees greatly diminished during this period; they slowly recover, especially in mild climates, because natural selection for varroa resistance and populations are back by resistant breeds. Insecticides, especially when used in excess of label guidelines, have also depleted bee populations due to pest and bee disease (including the American foulbrood and tracheal mites) becoming resistant to drugs.
Environmental hazards
African bees have spread throughout the southern United States, where they pose little harm to humans (making beekeeping - especially beekeeping - difficult). As an invasive species, wild honeybees have become a significant environmental problem in non-indigenous areas. Imported bees can replace the original bees and birds, and may also promote invasive plant reproduction that is ignored by native pollinators. Unlike native bees, they do not extract or transfer pollen properly from plants with anther pores (essence releasing only pollen through tiny apical pores); this requires a humming pollination, a behavior that is rarely exhibited by honeybees. The honeybees reduce the fruits in Melastoma affine , the plant with the head anther, by robbing the stigma from previously stored pollen.
Predator
Honeybee insect predators include Asian giant hornets and other wasps, robbers flies, dragonflies like green tamer, European beem, some grasshopper, and water strider.
Arachnid honeycomb predators include fishing spiders, lynx spiders, goldenrod spiders and spider St. Andrew's Cross.
Reptiles and amphibians of honeybee predators include American frogs, Anole lizards, American frogs and wooden frogs.
Predators specialist birds including bee eaters; Other birds that may take bees include grackle, hummingbirds, Summer tanager, and tyrant flycatchers. Most bee-eating birds do so opportunistically, however, summer tanagers will sit on a limb and catch dozens of bees from the entrance of the nest.
Mammals that occasionally eat bees include bears, small rats, opossums, raccoons, honey badges and skunks.
Close Relatives
Apart from Apis mellifera, there are 6 other species in the genus Apis . These are Apis andreniformis, Apis florea, Apis dorsata, Apis cerana, Apis koschevnikovi, and Apis nigrocincta. These other species are all from South and Southeast Asia. Only Apis mellifera is thought to be from Europe, Asia, and Africa.
See also
- Bee sting therapy
- Population decline
- Go directly to
- Bee bearding
- Working policing
References
Bibliography
External links
- FAO: Beekeeping explained
- FAO: Anatomy of honey bee
- IFAS: Apis mellifera
- Voice recordings Apis mellifera in BioAcoustica
- View the apiMel2 genome assembly in the UCSC Genome Browser.
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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