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Honeybee: Diversity, Castes and Life Cycle

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Industrial Entomology

Abstract

Honeybees are insects that come under order Hymenoptera and family Apidae and showed complete metamorphosis. Honeybee species are characterized by particular functional traits that facilitate pollination services to a greater or lesser degree (Bluthgen and Klein 2011). Based on morphometric, behavioural and biogeographical studies, 26 subspecies have been identified (Ruttner 1988; Sheppard et al. 1997; Sheppard and Meixner 2003; Engel 2004; Arias and Sheppard 2005). Apis mellifera occurs naturally over different geographical areas, extending from Scandinavia in the north to the Cape of Good Hope in the south and from Dakar in the west to Oman in the east. According to varying climatic conditions, the population is adapted to the particular geographical region (Ruttner et al. 1978). The colonies of A. mellifera are found from sea level to 1000 m above sea level in temperate zones and from sea level to 3700 m in the tropics, and they also survive in extreme hot and arid zone conditions of Oman (Dutton et al. 1981). Apis dorsata is distributed in Pakistan, through the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka to Indonesia and parts of the Philippines in the east, and its distribution is similar to the dwarf honeybee. The rock bees from Nepal and the Himalayas have recently been reclassified as Apis laboriosa. However, it is not clear whether the rock honeybees of Sikkim and Assam in northern India, western Yunnan Province in China and northern Burma should be classified as A. dorsata or as A. laboriosa. Apis florea distribution is generally confined to warm areas, i.e. Pakistan, Iran, Oman, India and Sri Lanka. Its distribution almost ceases at altitude above 1500 m and is absent in north of the Himalayas. Frequently, it can be seen in tropical forest and cultivated areas. In contrast to all of the above, the distribution of Apis cerana was found more in tropical, subtropical and temperate areas of Asia, occurring in the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka in the west, through South East Asia, to Indonesia and the Philippines in the east. For ages, colonies of the oriental honeybee, A. cerana, have provided mankind with honey and beeswax, as well as furnishing invaluable service in the pollination of agricultural crops. Among all the Apis species, only A. cerana and A. mellifera are domesticated by man because of their hidden nesting habit. Behavioural limitations of the dwarf and giant honeybees, particularly their practice of open-air nesting, prevent their being kept in man-made hives for reasonably long periods, while hiving colonies in specially constructed containers is essential in that it enables the colonies to be manipulated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Entomology, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, Haryana, India

    Sunita Yadav, Yogesh Kumar & Babul Lal Jat

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  1. Sunita Yadav
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  2. Yogesh Kumar
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  3. Babul Lal Jat
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Correspondence to Sunita Yadav .

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  1. Department of Zoology, University of Lucknow, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India

    Omkar

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Yadav, S., Kumar, Y., Jat, B.L. (2017). Honeybee: Diversity, Castes and Life Cycle. In: Omkar (eds) Industrial Entomology. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-3304-9_2

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