The Classic Taxonomy
Adjlane N., Badmazhapova E., Berezin A., Borodachev A., Brandorf A., Dar S. A., Dukku U.H., Eskov E., Gajda A., Gregorc A., Gulov A., Gushchina E., Hatjina F., Ilyasov R.A., Kandemir I., Kireeva T., Konusova O., Kucher A., Kwon H.W., Lee M.-l, Mitrofanov D., Ostroverkhova N., Özkan-Koca A., Pogorelov Y., Raffiudin R., Requier F., Rodrigues M., Seeley T.D., Yartsev V. (2020) Phylogenetics of bees. Editors: Ilyasov R.A., Kwon H.W. Boca Raton, London, New-York: CRC Press Taylor & Francis Group. 290 pp. (12 Color & 55 B/W Illustrations). ISBN 9781138504233
31 December, 2019
"A. cerana bees must have shared a common ancestor with A. mellifera"
Diversity of honey bees in the genus Apis
Honey bees (genus Apis) belong to the family Apidae (social bees) and superfamily Apoidea (all bees) in the insect order Hymenoptera (bees, wasps, ants, etc.).
Classic taxonomy of the Asian honey bee, Apis cerana
Speciation of Apis. cerana in Asia. A. cerana, or the Asiatic honey bee (or the Eastern honey bee), are small honey bees of India and South-eastern Asian countries, such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka, and North-eastern Asian countries, such as China, Mongolia, Taiwan, Korea (North and South), Japan, and Far Eastern Russia.
This species is the sister species of A. koschevnikovi and both are in the same subgenus as the European honey bee, A. mellifera. There are about 20,000 species of bees belonging to the Superfamily Apoidea. Honey bees of genus Apis belong to a small sub-group of this superfamily comprising nine species and A. cerana is one of the five cavity-nesting species (Arias and Sheppard 2005, Raffiudin and Crozier 2007, Koeniger et al. 2010). The critical importance of this review is the recognition of the genetic diversity present within A. cerana.
Distribution of A. cerana
A. cerana is very widespread across temperate and tropical Asia, reaching from Afghanistan to Korea and Japan, north into the foothills of the Himalayas and eastern Russia, and south through Indonesia (Fig. 4.2) (Ruttner 1988, Crane 1999, Hepburn and Radloff 2011a, Koetz 2013a). A. cerana range covers many climatic zones, from tropical rainforest and tropical savannah to mid-latitude grasslands, moist continental deciduous forests to taiga (Hepburn and Radloff 2011b). The current area of A. cerana has expanded across the world due to human interference (Koetz 2013b).
A. cerana is also called the oriental honey bee, because they are widely distributed throughout Asia, from Iran in the east to Pakistan in the west and from Japan in the north to the Philippines in the south (Ruttner 1988). Thus, A. cerana does not live only in tropical and subtropical areas of Asia, but also in colder areas, such as Siberia and Manchuria, Northern China, and the high mountain area of the Himalayan region (Koeniger 1976a).
Australia
In 1993, swarms of A. cerana were detected on Boigu, Saibai, and Dauan islands in the Torres Strait (Dunn 1992). A. cerana has been intercepted and destroyed on vessels at Australian seaports since 1995, namely Cairns, Brisbane, Melbourne, and South Australia (Barry et al. 2010). A nest was found in Darwin in 1998—it was destroyed and an eradication and surveillance program established (Anderson 2010). In 2003, A. cerana was detected over 1,000 kilometers further east on the Solomon Islands (Anderson et al. 2012).
Importance of A. cerana in Asia
Eastern honey bee A. cerana is an important native pollinator of crops in Asia, and essential producer of honey, wax, etc. (Dietz 1992). Beekeeping has been promoted as an economic concept for honey production in each country. However, its roles in enhancing agricultural productivity and maintaining biodiversity are more important.
Apis. cerana has adapted to local diseases, parasites, and enemies, and does not need any medicines or chemicals to treat them. Moreover, A. cerana bees are better pollinators of early blooming crops and flora (Partap 2011).
It is reported that A. cerana are more efficient pollinators of fruit and vegetable crops than A. mellifera. The field experiments conducted by Kathmandu valley of Nepal, Partap and Verma (1992, 1994) and Verma and Partap (1993, 1994) showed that the foragers of A. cerana started working on cauliflower and cabbage bloom more early in the morning and ceased later in the evening in comparison with A. mellifera.