Indigenous Bee species of Nepal

By Motikrishna shah:

                  Nepal is garden for diverse bee species in the world. Nepal has its own Indigenous bee species. Indigenous bee species means such bee that originally occurs in the country.
                       Usually there occurs 4 native types of honey bees in Nepal, i.e.
➤ Apis florea
➤ Apis dorsata
➤ Apis laboriosa
➤Apis cerena
                            The beekeeping practices in Nepal contributes to the economics boost up of the rural and marginalized landless farmers. The craze for beekeeping has increased rapidly in the decade of 10 years.

 

             Taxonomical Identification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Apidae

              

  Advantages of Bees

✅     Plant pollination

✅     Food preparation( ex- Honey)

✅     Wax production

✅    Medicinal properties

 

        Disadvantages of Bees
o Bees can bites (sting us).

Types and characters.

1.Apis florea
Characters
➽ Apis florea is also called “Little bee”
➽ They build single vertical combs.
➽ They also build comb in open area building, hedges, caves, palm in branches of bushes etc.
➽ They are not rearable since they frequently change their places.
➽ Their size is small compare to others.
➽ They are distributed in plains but not hills.

 

2.Apis dorsata
Characters
➽ Apis dorsata is also called “Rock bee”.
➽ They are giant bees found in high altitudinal regions upto 2700m.
➽ They construct single comb in open about 6 feet long and 3 feet deep.
➽ They shift the place of colony often. Bees are ferocious and difficult to rear.

 

3.Apis laboriosa
Characters
➽ Apis laboriosa is also called “Himalayan giant honey bee”.
➽ It can measure upto 3.0cm(1.2 inch) in length.
➽ They are found in isolated forests in Himalayan mountains in Nepal.
➽ The scutellum (dorsal side of thorax) is dark brown to black with long yellowish hairs).
 
➽All segments of the abdomen are dark.

4.Apis cerena

 Characters

 ➽  Apis cerena is also called “Asian honey bee”.

 ➽ They swarms and absconds.

 ➽ They are domesticated species .
 ➽ These bees construct multiple parallel combs.

Notes: 👥
People often get confused between A.laboriosa and A.dorsata because they seems almost same morphologically.
   However they could be distinguished on the basis of thoracic hair colour which is somewhat  “tawny yellow” in laboriosa and mostly “dark” in dorsata.

 

                   FIGURE: Left is A.laborios

                                    Right is A.dorsata

 YIELDS OF HONEY

 

Bee species	Honey yield per colony per years.
1.Apis florea	500gm
2.Apis dorsata	36kg
3.Apis laboriosa	25-60kg
4.Apis cerena	6-8kg

Extra things?

1. Queen honey bee is twice the length of workers.
2. Honey bee produces pheromones for communication which is called “Trophallaxis”.
3. Drone die after matings.

4. Mad honey is special honey produce by Apis laboriosa.