4. DISTRIBUTION
According to Hepburn, et al. (2005), A. florea extends
7000 km from its eastern-most extreme in Vietnam and
southeastern China, across mainland Asia, along and
below the southern flanks of the Himalayas, westwards to
the Plateau of Iran, and southerly into Oman. This
constitutes 70 degrees of longitude (40°–110° East) and
nearly 30 degrees of latitude (6°–34° North). Variations in
altitude range from sea level to about 2000 m. A.
florea has also been introduced in historical times in
Saudi Arabia and Sudan, and occurred on Java, Indonesia
up until ~50 years ago.
image source internet. Use for education purposes only. Slide
design (C) thesrft
6. DIAGNOSTIC CHARACTERISTICS
Workerforewinglengthbetween6.2–6.8mm.
Drones with hind leg basitarsus process ; digit long , more than 2/3rds the length of
metabastirsus.
Femaleworkerwithmetatibiaanddorsolateralmarginofmetabasitarsuswithwhitesetae.
MetasomalT1andT2reddish-orangetoreddish-brown.
Sting apparatus with 10 lancet barbs and 4–5 pairs of stylet barbs (Jayasvasti and Wongsiri
1992).
Distancefromtipoflancettothefirstbarb=42.59µm(JayasvastiandWongsiri1993).
image source internet. Use for education purposes only. Slide
design (C) thesrft
7. HONEY PRODUCTION
• APIS FLOREA : They are the smallest of the true honeybees found in
plains of India up to the altitude of 500 m . They build single vertical
combs . They are poor honey yielders and yield about 200-900 g of honey
per colony .
image source internet. Use for education purposes only. Slide
design (C) thesrft
8. LIFECYCLEOFA.FLOREA
[1] Eggs are laid singly in a cell in a wax honeycomb , produced and shaped by
the worker bees , the queen actually can choose to fertilize the egg she is
laying , usually depending on into which cell she is laying .
[2] Drones develop from unfertilized eggs while females (queens and worker
bees) develop from fertilized eggs .
[3] Larvae are initially fed with royal jelly produced by worker bees , later
switching to honey and pollen . The exception is a larva fed solely on royal
jelly . Which will develop into a queen bee . The larvae undergoes several
moltings before spinning a cocoon within the cell , and pupating .
image source internet. Use for education purposes only. Slide
design (C) thesrft
9. Cont..
[4] Younger worker bees clean the hive and feed the larvae . When their royal-jelly producing
glands begin to atrophy , they begin building comb cells . They progress to other within colony
tasks as they become older , such as receiving nectar and pollen from foragers , and guarding
the hive. Later still , a worker takes her first orientation flights and finally leaves the hive and
typically spends the remainder of her life as a forager .
[5] Development from egg to emerging bee varies among queens,workers and drones. Queens
emerge from their cells in 15,16 days, workers in 21 days and drones in 24 days .
[6] This honeycomb belong to a species of honey bees called “Dwarf honey bees” (Apis florea).
Their stings are often incapable of penetrating human skin .
image source internet. Use for education purposes only. Slide
design (C) thesrft
10. Fig ; A.Flores female
image source internet. Use for education purposes only. Slide
design (C) thesrft
