Ecology, Behaviour and Control of Apis cerana with a Focus on Relevance to the Australian Incursion

Abstract

Apis cerana Fabricius is endemic to most of Asia, where it has been used for honey production and pollination services for thousands of years. Since the 1980s, A. cerana has been introduced to areas outside its natural range (namely New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Australia), which sparked fears that it may become a pest species that could compete with, and negatively affect, native Australian fauna and flora, as well as commercially kept A. mellifera and commercial crops. This literature review is a response to these concerns and reviews what is known about the ecology and behaviour of A. cerana. Differences between temperate and tropical strains of A. cerana are reviewed, as are A. cerana pollination, competition between A. cerana and A. mellifera, and the impact and control strategies of introduced A. cerana, with a particular focus on gaps of current knowledge.

Dynamic microbiome evolution in social bees

“…These introductions, combined with the close genetic relationship and lifestyle of the two species, have facilitated a disastrous transmission of pathogenic microbes in both directions, with various mites, viruses, and microsporidian parasites devastating naïve hosts ( 33 ). In 2007, A. cerana was inadvertently introduced to Australia at Cairns, Queensland, sparking concern for the existing apicultural industry based around A. mellifera ( 34 ). Whether the normal gut microbiotas of the two species have also become homogenized was unknown.…”

“…Bumble bees (pictured; B. impatiens ) in this study were collected from several sites in the United States. Biogeographical data are from previous studies ( 34 , 60 , 120 , 121 ). …”

Flight range of the Australian stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria (Hymenoptera: Apidae)

“…Today, however, both managed and wild populations of honey bees in many regions of the world are experiencing population instability due to pathogens and pests such as the Varroa mite and its associated viruses, and other stressors (Potts et al 2010;Martin et al 2012). Even where honey bees populations are currently stable, the further spread of Varroa, and invasive competitors such as Apis cerana, poses risks for future population health (Koetz 2013;Iwasaki et al 2015). Native bees offer pollinator diversity and thus insurance against honey bee declines and may even be superior pollinators of some crops Garibaldi et al 2013).…”

Visitation and gnawing behaviour of Japanese honeybee Apis cerana japonica to lettuce

“…A. mellifera is a widely used agricultural pollinator, the most actively managed bee species in the world (Delaplane and Mayer 2000), and was imported into Japan for beekeeping. The Japanese honeybee is a subspecies of Apis cerana and is distributed in Japan (Sasaki 1999;Hepburn and Radloff 2011;Koetz 2013). Although some aspects of the behaviour and life history of A. cerana are similar to those of A. mellifera (Koetz 2013), this species include Japanese honeybee exhibits unique abilities, such as formation of a hot bee ball to defend against hornets (Ono et al 1995), and high resistance to mites and bacteria (Peng et al 1987;Sasaki 1999;Yoshiyama and Kimura 2009).…”