East African lowland honey bee: Difference between revisions
Jboltonnal (talk | contribs) |
|||
| Line 27: | Line 27: | ||
*http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/pi/plantinsp/apiary/africanbees.html |
*http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/pi/plantinsp/apiary/africanbees.html |
||
*http://www.lawestvector.org/beebiology.htm |
*http://www.lawestvector.org/beebiology.htm |
||
* [http://www.invasivespeciesinfo.gov/animals/afrhonbee.shtml Species Profile- Africanized Honeybee (''Apis mellifera scutellata'')], National Invasive Species Information Center, [[United States National Agricultural Library]]. Lists general information and resources for Africanized Honeybee. |
|||
==See also== |
==See also== |
||
*[[Africanized bee]] |
*[[Africanized bee]] |
||
Revision as of 21:52, 15 February 2011
| African honey bee | |
|---|---|
| |
| Adult africanized honey bee | |
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | |
| Phylum: | |
| Class: | |
| Order: | |
| Family: | |
| Genus: | |
| Species: | |
| Subspecies: | A. m. scutellata
|
| Trinomial name | |
| Apis mellifera scutellata Lepeletier, 1836
| |
The African honey bee (Apis mellifera scutellata) is a subspecies of the Western honey bee. It is native to central and southern Africa, though at the southern extreme it is replaced by the Cape honey bee, Apis mellifera capensis.
This subspecies has been determined to constitute one part of the ancestry of the Africanized bees (also known as "killer bees") spreading through the Americas.
The African bee is being threatened by the introduction of the Cape honey bee into northern South Africa. If a female worker from a Cape honey bee colony enters an African bee nest, they are not attacked, partly due to their resemblance to the African bee queen. Now independent from her own colony, she may begin laying eggs, and since A.m. capensis workers are capable of parthenogenetic reproduction, they will hatch as "clones" of herself, which will also lay eggs. As a result the parasitic A. m. capensis workers increase in number within a host colony. This leads to the death of the host colony on which they depend. An important factor causing the death of a colony seems to be the dwindling numbers of A. m. scutellata workers that perform foraging duties (A. m. capensis workers are greatly under-represented in the foraging force of an infected colony) owing to death of the queen, and, before queen death, competition for egg laying between A. m. capensis workers and the queen. When the colony dies, the capensis females will seek out a new host colony.[1]
A single African bee sting is no more venomous than a single European bee sting, though African honeybees respond more quickly when disturbed than do EHBs. They send out three to four times as many workers in response to a threat. They will also pursue an intruder for a greater distance from the hive. Although people have died as a result of 100-300 stings, it has been estimated that the average lethal dose for an adult is 500-1,100 bee stings.
External links
- http://www.doacs.state.fl.us/pi/plantinsp/apiary/africanbees.html
- http://www.lawestvector.org/beebiology.htm
- Species Profile- Africanized Honeybee (Apis mellifera scutellata), National Invasive Species Information Center, United States National Agricultural Library. Lists general information and resources for Africanized Honeybee.
See also
References
 | This bee-related article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it. |