Apis

The cavity-nesting Apis mellifera and Apis cerana bees detect, uncap, and remove diseased brood. The hygiene behaviour of open-air-nesting bees Apis dorsata and Apis laboriosa was investigated in India and Nepal. Sealed A. dorsata pupae were pin-killed or deep-frozen. The workers removed 73 or 37% of damaged pin-killed pupae depending on the diameter of the pins, and only 7% of the frozen undamaged pupae. Migrating A. dorsata and A. laboriosa left unopened the sealed brood in deserted combs. Thus, A. dorsata and A. laboriosa do not open undamaged cells with dead brood. This behaviour is a more efficient mechanism in preventing the spread of diseases and parasitic mites than uncapping and removing dead pupae by A. mellifera and A. cerana. It may be beneficial for migrating A. dorsata and A. laboriosa to temporarily disuse part of the comb cells in exchange for arresting the mites there and thus reducing the increase of their population.

Defense behavior of three, free living giant (Megapis) honey bee subspecies, Apis laboriosa, A. dorsata dorsata and A. dorsata breviligula, was compared. Disturbed worker bees responded with characteristic dorso-ventral defense body twisting (DBT). Workers of A. laboriosa twisted the thorax by 55°, and the two other A. dorsata subspecies by about 10° more. A. laboriosa workers raised the tip of the abdomen by 90° and workers of the two other bee subspecies by about 20° higher. Differences in those traits were highly significant between A. laboriosa and both A. dorsata subspecies, but were not significant between those two subspecies. The whole cycle of DBT was the most vigorous in A. d. breviligula (0.11 s), and it was twice as vigorous as in A. d. dorsata (0.26 s) and trice as in A. laboriosa (0.32 s). A. laboriosa twisted the body together with wings folded over the abdomen, while the two A. dorsata subspecies raised the abdomen between spread wings. This supports the opinion to treat A. laboriosa as a separate species.

Honeybees are native to Africa and Europe but have been spread worldwide as the basis for an apicultural industry. To date, large and diverse wild populations only remain in Africa. On this continent the beekeeping industry is relatively undeveloped and relies on trapping swarms from wild populations to constitute the managed stocks. Bee breeding is seldom practiced. The situation is therefore different from that of Europe or North America where wild or feral honeybees have almost disappeared and this distinction is important when assessing the conservation status of African honeybees. While African honeybees appear to be more resistant to major diseases, the history of honeybee populations worldwide suggests that their conservation is a necessity. After analyzing the threats to which honeybees are exposed in Africa, we argue that preventive conservation measures are required to maintain the present favorable situation and avoid the declines in populations experienced elsewhere. Die Beziehung zwischen Menschen und Honigbienen hat in Afrika verschiedene Formen: In vielen Ländern wird Honigjagd praktiziert; In einigen Ländern ist die traditionelle Bienenhaltung in Körben oder Klotzbeuten weitverbreitet während andere moderne Bienenhaltungstechnologie einsetzen. Der hauptsächliche kontextuelle Unterschied zu anderen Weltregionen, in denen die Honigbienen entweder heimisch sind oder eingeführt wurden, ist die bedeutende Population von freilebenden Bienen, auf denen Honigjagd und Ausbeutung basieren. Im Gegensatz zu Europa machen bewirtschaftete Völker nur einen kleinen Teil der Honigbienenpopulation aus (14–18 aus 310 Mio). Weiterhin basiert die Bienenhaltung in Afrika weitgehend auf dem Fang von wilden Schwärmen und es wird keine oder nur wenig Bienenzucht betrieben. Diese Unterschiede sind wichtig, wenn die Honigbienenpopulationen von den in anderen Teilen der Welt zu beobachtenden Abnahmen geschützt werden sollen. Für Afrika sollten daher besondere politische Maßnahmen entwickelt werden. Auf diesem Kontinent sind die Netzwerke, auf die sich Bienenhalter und die Bienenindustrie stützen können nur sehr schwach entwickelt, und es wurden nur wenige Untersuchungen über die Honigbienen durchgeführt. Es ist daher sehr schwer, genaue Informationen und Zahlen über den Gesundheitszustand der Honigbienenpopulationen zu erhalten und daraus abzuleiten, ob Schutzmaßnahmen notwendig sind. Angesichts der Größe der Wildpopulation und dem Fehlen von Berichten über Epidemien könnte man schließen, dass die Wildpopulation in Afrika nicht gefährdet ist und daher von den Imkern ausgebeutet werden kann. Obwohl afrikanische Honigbienen den meisten Krankheiten ausgesetzt sind, die weltweit Honigbienen schädigen und sie diesen widerstehen können, sind der Verlust von Habitaten und Bejagung zwei Faktoren, denen europäische Bienen in geringerem Ausmaß ausgesetzt sind (da freilebende Honigbienen praktisch nicht mehr vorkommen und die bewirtschafteten Völker in vom Menschen hergestellten Beuten leben). Diese und andere noch nicht identifizierte Faktoren (z. B. neue Krankheiten) können Honigbienen negativ beeinflussen und ihre Wirkung könnte unter Umständen zu Verlusten in ähnlichem Ausmaß führen, wie sie andernorts beobachtet werden. Um zu verhindern, dass etwas Ähnliches in Afrika passieren kann, schlagen wir die Schaffung und Verbesserung sowie eine effektive Inkraftsetzung von Regulationen vor, die auf eine Erhaltung der afrikanischen Honigbienen abzielen. Da Afrika das Ursprungsland von Apis mellifera darstellt und das einzige Weltgebiet, in dem eine große Wildpopulation erhalten ist, sind Anstrengungen zur Erhaltung nicht nur zum Erhalt von einzigartigen Populationen vonnöten, sondern auch, um das Funktionieren des Ökosystems und der landwirtschaftlichen Produktion sicherzustellen, die beide von den Bestäubungsleistungen der Honigbienen abhängig sind.

This study assessed the involvement of endogenous glucocorticoids (GCs) in the anti-arthritic properties of bee venom (BV) on antigen-induced arthritis (AIA) in rabbits.BV (1.5–6 μg/kg/day) was injected for 7 days before AIA induction, whereas the control group received sterile saline. The total and differential leukocyte count, PGE2 levels in synovial fluid and synovial membrane cell infiltrate were evaluated. The contribution of GCs to BV action was assessed in rabbits treated with BV plus metyrapone, an inhibitor of GC synthesis, or RU-38 486, a steroid antagonist.Treatment with BV (1.5 μg/kg/day) reduced the leukocyte count and PGE2 level (18571 ± 1909 cells/mm3 and 0.49 ± 0.05 ng/mL, respectively) as well as the cellular infiltrate compared with the control group (40968 ± 5248 cells/mm3 and 2.92 ± 0.68 ng/mL, p < 0.05). The addition of metyrapone to BV treatment completely reversed the inhibition of AIA, whereas RU-38 486 was ineffective.Our data show that bee venom treatment prevents the development of antigen-induced arthritis in rabbits through the action of GCs.

This experiment was carried out to study the internal temperature regulation of a colony of Africanized honey bees (AFR), compared with hybrid Caucasian (CAU), Italian (ITA), and Carniolan (CAR) bees, during the period of one year and different size hives located in a sub-tropical region. The instant internal temperature, 33.7 ± 1.5° C for the AFR, 33.5 ± 1.4° C for the CAU, 33.7 ± 1.5° C for the ITA and 33.8 ± 1.4° C for the CAR, did not show any significant difference (P&gt;0.05). The maximum temperature (36.1 ± 2.3° C) was statistically different (P&lt;0.05) from the minimum (27.6 ± 5.3° C). There was no difference (P&gt;0.05) in the mean internal temperature, between the nucleus (31.7 ± 6.3° C) and the brood nest (32.1 ± 5.3° C) measured between two and four o&#39;clock in the afternoon.

It is the purpose of this article to rethink several episodes in Herodotus’ Histories III 1-29 concerning Cambyses and his conquest of Egypt, his campaign against the Ammonians and the Ethiopians, and the murder of the Apis bull. Could Cambyses have succeeded in achieving all these deeds in the time span, which the documents, dated to his reign in Egypt, enable?

The recently developed geometric morphometrics methods represent an important contribution of statistics and geometry to the study of biological shapes. We propose simple protocols using shape distances that incorporate geometric techniques into linear quantitative genetic models that should provide insights into the contribution of genetics to shape variation in organisms. The geometric approaches use Procrustes distances in a curved shape space and distances in tangent spaces within and among families to estimate shape heritability. We illustrate the protocols with an example of wing shape variation in the honeybee, Apis mellifera. The heritability of overall shape variation was small, but some localized components depicting shape changes on distal wing regions showed medium to large heritabilities. The genetic variance-covariance matrix of the geometric shape variables was significantly correlated with the phenotypic shape variance-covariance matrix. A comparison of the results o...

A reflection on the authors' experiences with public display research - systems built and lessons learned - explores content creation and control, programmable infrastructures, and applications, to offer unique insights for those considering research or practical deployments using this technology.

Defense behavior of three, free living giant (Megapis) honey bee subspecies, Apis laboriosa, A. dorsata dorsata and A. dorsata breviligula, was compared. Disturbed worker bees responded with characteristic dorso-ventral defense body twisting (DBT). Workers of A. laboriosa twisted the thorax by 55°, and the two other A. dorsata subspecies by about 10° more. A. laboriosa workers raised the tip of the abdomen by 90° and workers of the two other bee subspecies by about 20° higher. Differences in those traits were highly significant between A. laboriosa and both A. dorsata subspecies, but were not significant between those two subspecies. The whole cycle of DBT was the most vigorous in A. d. breviligula (0.11 s), and it was twice as vigorous as in A. d. dorsata (0.26 s) and trice as in A. laboriosa (0.32 s). A. laboriosa twisted the body together with wings folded over the abdomen, while the two A. dorsata subspecies raised the abdomen between spread wings. This supports the opinion to treat A. laboriosa as a separate species.