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Little bee (Apis florea)
Introduction : Apis florea is a single-combed, open-nesting, dwarf honeybee indigenous to Asia. It is commonly called as “Dwarf bee”or “little bee”. As its name implies, the dwarf honeybee is the smallest species of honeybee, both In the body size of its workers and in the size of its nest. in areas of its distribution it lives along with Apis cerena and Apis dorsata; the ratio of their size is 1.0: 1.27: 2.09 respectively (Ruttner, 1988; Free, 1981) compared to the other species of honeybees, its workers have a long life of 61.2 days which is 2.5 times that of an Apis mellifera worker(Michner, 1979). More recently, an allied a species or may be the subspecies Apis andreniformis, has been recorded in Borneo (Koeniger et al., 1999) and it is believed natural hybridization does not occur. Fig : The dwarf honey bee- Apis florea

Classification

the history of the classification of intraspecific categories of A. florea contrasts with that of other Asian species of honeybees in several interesting ways. Maa (1953) was an eminent museum taxonomist whose work has almost universally been regarded as belonging to the “splitters school”, particularly with regard to the many taxa erected for A. cerana and A. mellifera. Yet, Maa (1953) synonymized all previous intraspecific taxa of A. florea and A. andreniformis, a view that still prevails (Engel, 1999). The apparent lack of intraspecific taxa in the two dwarf honeybee (Micrapis) species may reflect a limited dispersal ability, as evidenced by their absence on most offshore island groups (Otis, 1997). This apparent inability of A. florea to disperse from peripheral populations, coupled with synchronous reproductive seasons across its distribution, have apparently limited regional differentiation of these species into recognizable subspecies/races. The comparisons of A. florea from India/Sri Lanka (3.2.2 above) or Iran, India, Thailand and Vietnam (3.2.6 above) both yielded two morphoclusters. Similarly, the analyses of Ruttner (1988) and Tahmasebi et al. (2002) yielded three morphoclusters and precisely the same result is shown in Figures 2 and 3. As previously noted, the effects of sample size and interlocality distance have major implications for morphocluster group formation (Radloff and Hepburn, 1998). Here, the distributional variation in morphometric characters is clinal: northwestern bees are larger than southeastern ones. In the final analysis, A. florea is a single species comprised of three discernible morphoclusters. The northwestern-most bees comprise a morphocluster (1) that is statistically quite distinct from that to the southeast (3); but, they are not isolated, they are joined by large areas of intermediate forms (2) resulting in a continuous cline in morphometric traits within this panmictic species.

Morphological characters of Apis florea : Character	Apis florea General Appearance	very small Worker body colour	Black Rings	1 & 2 red, tergites 3, 4, 5 & 6 have white tomenta Worker Cellsize (mm)	2.9 Drone body colour Cubital Index (worker)ave	2.82* Fore wing Length min (mm)	6.0 [6.3] Fore wing Length max (mm)	6.9 [7.0] Tongue, ave (mm)	3.44

Distribution :

The distribution area of A. florea is generally confined to warm climates. In the west The dwarf honeybee, Apis florea F. lives in nature in the subtropical region  of India, Pakistan, as far west as the Persian gulf, oman, or may even be north America (Lord and Nagi, 1987), in malaysia, Thailand, indo-china, Indonesia,. It is found as far east as Indonesia, but its primary distribution centre is southeast Asia. Rarely found at altitudes above 1500 m, the bee is absent north of the Himalayas. It is frequently found in tropical forests, in woods and even in farming areas. In southeast Asia it is not rare to find a nest of A. florea in a village. The ability to survive in a very hot and dry climate is the special trait and it can live in deserts without any harm at places where temperature may touch 50⁰c. in areas of its distribution it lives along with Apis cerena and Apis dorsata. Fig : areas of distribution of little bee in the world

Habitat :

Dwarf honeybees nest in the open, but not without camouflage: most nests are hung from slender branches of trees or shrubs covered with relatively dense foliage, usually from 1 to 8 metres above the ground. They can be found ina varied habitat such as in abandoned buildins, tall buildings, cotton stalks, empty boxes etc., Sometimes the combs are constructed in a protected place in the hollow of a hedge, a stack of sticks or even a hollow in a building structure(Sandhu & singh, 1960; thakar & tonapi, 1962). They are wild bees, attempt made to hive become failure. The Dwarf bee Changes their nesting place 3-4 times a year. The heat tolerance ability is further demonstrated by the fact that its daily activity starts at 18⁰C and continues up to 40⁰C. it is no wonder that she is a relentless visitor of flowers of crops, trees, shrubs, and the annuals. Her small size restricts her to a shorter flight and hence she exploits the flowers intensively(Whiecomb, 1982, 1984). In one study, on brassica crops this bee constituted 73-74% of the insect visitors observed(Atwal,1970).

–––––– Fig : A little bee colony built in a thorny shrub (Prosophis juliflora) in Anandhanambikurichi village

Comb characteristics :

A nest of A. florea consists of a single comb, whose upper part expands to form a crest that surrounds the branch or other object from which the comb is suspended.. In Oman, where A. florea nests are frequently found in caves, such combs are without crests. Combs of the dwarf honeybee are well covered with layers of workers clinging to each other' often three or four deep. About three quarters of the colony's worker population are employed in forming this living protective curtain of bees. When disturbed, this curtain shows a "shimmering" movement, the individual trees shaking their abdomens from side to side in a synchronous manner; at the same time, a hissing sound is released. If the colony is further disturbed, the worker trees raise their abdomens and take off from the curtain to attack the intruder. Fig : an open nest of Apis florea

The dwarf honeybees construct their nest around the stem of a bush, or a dried thick stick. At the top the nest encircles the strong stem so as to give it a good strength. The portion of the comb that encircles around the stem(or on the flat of ceiling in a building) is thick but as the comb is built further down it becomes thin in depth, although as broad as the upper portion. On the top the comb is flattened so that, it serves as a sort of platform on which the communication dances are performed(Whitecomb, 1982, 1984; koeniger et al., 1982). Even when the comb is built on a flat surface like a ceiling in a verandah the upper portion is broad. Prevention from ants :

To ward off ant attacks, the workers coat both ends of the nest support with sticky strips of propolis, or "plant gum", from 2.5 to 4 cm wide. A. florea is the only honeybee that uses this defensive technique.

Honey and pollen store :

The long and deep cells in the upper portions are used for storing honey and the smaller standard size cells are used for rearing brood. Adjacent to the rows of honey-storage cells is the section of comb which the workers use for storing pollen. Beneath this band of pollen-storage cells is the area where the worker brood is reared.

Brood cells :

The worker brood cells are made on the flat surface in the middle of the comb. The larger drone cells are 4.2-4.8 mm in diameter, and are found on the lower part of the comb. The queen cells are at the lowest end of the comb and are quite large in size. The comb itself is just under one foot in length usually 30x15 cm size and contains about 14,000 cells. The size of all the three types of cells varies with geography and becomes smaller as we go from North to south. In a colony there are about 6,000 bees and the queen lays 350 eggs per day in a brood area of 600cm2 (Kashirsagar et al., 1980).

Swarming behavior :

During the season when there is an ample supply of nectar and honey, populous colonies of the dwarf honeybee send out multiple reproductive swarms. In addition, colonies of this bee have a high degree of mobility. Disturbance by natural enemies, exposure to inclement weather and scarcity of forage are among the major causes of colonies absconding. This bees may shift within two months in dry season and within five months in rainy season. When they shift they carry away all the provisions, including wax(Free, 1981; Sakagami et al., 1973; Rutner, 1988). Since this honeybee shifts a lot, it would appear its biology is adapted to multiplication, swarming and dissolution of the colony with the purpose of resembling under a new situation. Prior to the swarming season, drone-brood cells are added, adjoining the lower rows of the worker-brood cells. During a short span of 2-5 months the nest is built, brood is reared, honey is stored, and 12-16 queen cells are built for the further propagation. When the first queen emerges, the colony swarms and along with the mother queen half the number of workers leave. Subsequently, the virgin queen mate and smaller swarm leave every few days. In the end a handful of bees remain on the comb and eventually they also swarm away or simply disperse, leaving the comb bare and deserted (sandhu and singh, 1960; khirsagar et al., 1980; koeniger et al., 1982). The swarms forming a new colony generally settle at a distance of less than 100 meters after shifting their site afew times. Some swarms do go far but not more than few hundred meters. It has been observed that if a queen is removed or it dies naturally, the workers build a queen cell by modifying the worker cell somewhere in the middle of the comb.

Foraging behavior of Apis florea.

The foraging behaviour of insect visitors to onion (Allium cepa L.) flowers was studied in relation to five environmental variables. The dwarf honey bee Apis florea L. was the most abundant flower visitor, and comprised more than 94% of the total visitors. Commencement of flight activity occurred when a minimum threshold of environmental variables was exceeded, while the cessation was governed mainly by decline in light intensity and radiation. The foraging population correlated significantly and positively with air temperature, light intensity, solar radiation and nectar-sugar concentration and negatively with relative humidity. Path coefficient analysis, revealed, however, that the direct effect of temperature was large and positive followed by light intensity and solar radiation while the direct effect of relative humidity was small and negative. The direct effect of nectar-sugar concentration was positive and negligible. Path coefficient analysis thus gave a clearer picture of the effects than did a simple correlation analysis. On average A. florea visited 1.33+0.26 and 6.17+0.58 umbels and flowers / min, during different hours of the day. The insect pollinated plots produced significantly more seeds with heavier weights than those isolated from insect visits.

Worker policing :

In common with other species of this genus, A. florea is highly polyandrous, and is therefore predicted to curtail worker reproduction by mutual policing mechanisms that keep worker reproduction at an extremely low level. Policing mechanisms could involve destruction of workers’ eggs or offspring, or aggression toward those workers that are reproductively active. We show that in A. florea, worker laid eggs are eliminated approximately twice as fast as queen-laid eggs, indicating that A. florea uses oophagy of worker-laid eggs as a mechanism of worker policing. Genetic analysis of four colonies indicated that all males produced were sons of queens, not workers. Dissections of 800 workers, from four colonies, did not reveal any significant levels of ovary activation. These results suggest that worker policing is an effective component of the mechanisms that maintain worker sterility in this species. Furthermore, they suggest that worker policing via oophagy of worker-laid eggs is pleisiomorphic for the genus.

Communication dances :

The communication among bees is through dances on the horizontal plane at the top of the comb. Making use of the position of the sun the dancing bees are able to convey to the others the direction and distance of the food source. They make the waggle dance by raising the tip of abdomen upwards and creating dorso-ventral motions (Lindauer, 1957, 1971). The giant honeybee also takes the same posture but in dances on the vertical plane of the comb. The closed nest species, Apis cerena and Apis mellifera, also dances in on the vertical plane bt while dancing they bend their abdomen downwards. Apis florea, among the four species of honeybees is considered more primitive in dancing behavior as it cannot transpose the direction and the distance of the food source on the vertical plane, which seems to be a more complicated manipulation(Lindauer, 1957). Pheromones also play a important part in communication among these bees(Free & William, 1979).

Honey :

The honeybee produces no more than half a kilogram of honey which is dark in colour and has a strong flavor. It is not much of a commercial product but some people value it for the rich medicinal value. Apis florea even though quite small in body size can be quite aggressive and resort to robbing the nests of Apis mellifera, much bigger in body size and greater in colony strength(chahal et al., 1986; Koeniger, 1976 b). lately, some researchers on this honeybee have also beeb conducted in oman and in iran showing in its preservation as a species(Tigori, 1971, 1987).

Natural enemies : The natural enemies of the bee includes wasp, ants, bee-eating birds, wax moth, and some mammals. A new species of nosema has been identified from this honeybee from sri lanka which can be transmitted to Apis mellifera experimentally in the laboratory (Ryttner, 1988).

Attempts for hiving :

In some parts of Asla, the rural people have devised a scheme for harvesting this honey. First, nests or the bees are transferred from their natural sites to the village, and then, using twine and two short twigs, the nest is clamped and attached to a small branch of a tree. The upper part of the comb, containing the honey, is cut out, and the honey is squeezed out from it. A period of about six to eight weeks is allowed for the bees to repair the comb and replenish it with honey, and then it is harvested again. This method is not always reliable, however, because most colonies will abscond either shortly after their transfer to the new site or after the first or second harvest has taken place.

Bee hunting :

Where nests of A. florea are abundant, several rural families can subsist on the income generated from beehunting alone. Although the practice appears ecologically destructive, particularly insofar as it reduces a valuable population of natural pollinators, it does not always destroy the colony being hunted. Workers and laying queens of the dwarf honeybee are able to respond to nest predation quickly. The entire colony, accompanied by a laying queen, can fly several meters away to regroup, and later abscond. Some absconding colonies are able to survive to build their new combs in a nearby area.

Microbiological investigation of the dwarf honeybee : Investigation of samples

A proportion of the combs collected in each year showed signs of diseased brood (23%, 4% and 15% for 1996, 1997 and 1998 respectively). From these, one hundred and eighty four cells were selected for further investigation. They included drone, worker and queen cells the contents of which were aseptically removed, visualized by binocular microscopy and the images recorded digitally. Following this, the contents of each cell were homogenized in sterile deionised water and the resultant extracts were investigated for the presence of bacteria and viruses.

Bacteriological findings

A variety of morphological types of bacteria were observed in smears of homogenates negatively stained with nigrosin. These included cocci arranged singly and in groups, coccobacilli and rods of various sizes. One type, observed in more than 30% of smears, was morphologically indistinguishable from that of elissococcus plutonius, the causative agent ofEuropean foulbrood. A small proportion, only, of the bacteria observed in the nigrosin smears could be cultured. Of those that could be isolated, bacteria belonging to the genera Bacillus, Kocuria, Pseudomonas, Ochrobacterium, Micrococcus, Rhodococcus and Aurebacterium were identified by 16S RNA sequencing. Many are soil organisms with some, such as Ochrobacterium anthropi and Bacillus licheniformis, being associated with disease in human beings. The former has been isolated from clinical specimens of immunocompromised patients and can invade human epithelial cells (1). The latter is known as a cause of food poisoning, bacteraemia and postoperative ventriculitis. While being potentially pathogenic to human beings, Bacillus licheniformis produces antibiotics that are manufactured on an industrial scale (Bacitracin and Proticin). It also secretes proteolytic enzymes that are used extensively in washing detergents. The organism is ‘farmed’ by bees for inoculation of larval food (‘bee bread’) and is thought to aid in keeping it free from potentially pathogenic micro-organisms as well as aiding in the digestion of food in the larval gut (2).

Virological findings

Two viruses, namely black queen cell virus (BQCV) and deformed wing virus (DWV) were detected serologically by immunodiffusion, the former in a few workers and the latter in one individual. There was no evidence for the presence of either sacbrood virus (SBV), Kashmir bee virus (KBV) slow paralysis virus (SPV)(tested by immunodiffusion), or cloudy wing virus (CWV, tested by ELISA). Virus particles were not visualized by electron microscopy in extracts failing to react in serological tests.

Vallanadu honey :

A Tamilnadu forest department record says that the honey obtained from vallanadu reserve forest (Indian blackbuck sanctuary ) in tuticorin district is the most valuable honey in  tamilnadu. The vallanadu honey is nothing but the little bee(Apis florea) honey. the only nectar source for little bees in vallanadu hills is the xerophytic plants as it is an arid forest (rainfall < 450 mm). the honey collected by little bees from the xerophytes in vallanadu hills is specific, having high market demand value. Shepherds used to harvest these honey by bee hunting.

Reference :

•	Atwal, A.S. 2000. Essentials of beekeeping and pollination. Honey bees and their relatives. Page no :22-24. •	Apis florea: morphometrics, classification and biogeography. Apidologie 36 (2005) 359–376 © INRA/DIB-AGIB/ EDP Sciences, 2005 .DOI: 10.1051/apido:2005023

•	Behav Ecol Sociobiol (2001) 49:509–513 DOI 10.1007/s002650100325 Worker policing in the bee Apis florea

•	BIOTROPIA No. 14, 1999: 10-16 MORPHOLOGICAL COMPARISON OF THREE ASIAN NATIVE HONEY BEES (APIS CERANA, A. DORSATA, A. FLOREA) IN NORTHERN VIETNAM AND THAILAND

•	MICROBIOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE DWARF HONEY BEE APIS FLOREA Department of Animal & Microbial Sciences, Whiteknights

•	The Asian Species of Apis. Sarah E. Radloff, H.R. Hepburn, and Michael S. Engel