The Western Honey bee The western honey bee or European honey bee (Apis mellifera) is a species of honey bee. The genus Apis is Latin for bee, and mellifera means honey-bearing. The western honey bee is native to the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Western honey bees differentiated into geographic races as they spread from Africa into Eurasia. Currently, 28 subspecies based on these geographic variations are recognized. The 28 subspecies can be assigned to one of four major branches based on work by Ruttner, and subsequently confirmed by analysis of mitochondrial DNA. African subspecies are assigned to branch A, northwest European subspecies to branch M, southwest European subspecies to branch C, and Mideast subspecies to branch O. The subspecies are grouped and listed in the sidebar. Regions with localized variations may become identified subspecies in the near future, such as A. m. pomonella from the Tian Shan Mountains, which would be included in the Mideast subspecies branch. Bees produce honey by collecting nectar, which is a clear liquid consisting of nearly 80% water, with complex sugars. The collecting bees store the nectar in a second stomach and return to the hive, where worker bees remove the nectar. The worker bees digest the raw nectar for about 30 minutes using enzymes to break up the complex sugars into simpler ones. Raw honey is then spread out in empty honeycomb cells to dry, which reduces the water content to less than 20%. When nectar is being processed, honey bees create a draft through the hive by fanning with their wings. Once dried, the cells of the honeycomb are sealed (capped) with wax to preserve the honey. When a hive detects smoke, many bees become remarkably nonaggressive; this is speculated to be a defense mechanism. Wild colonies generally live in hollow trees, and when bees detect smoke, they are assumed to prepare to evacuate from a forest fire, carrying as much food reserve as they can. To do this, they will go to the nearest honey storage cells and gorge on honey. In this state, they are quite docile, since defense from predation is less important than saving as much food as possible. Picture shot at Wayanad in January 2013. Device – Canon 1Ds Mark III + Lens – Canon EF 70-200mm 1:2:8 L IS II USM + Focal Length – 200mm + Aperture – F/5.6 + Shutter Speed – 1/125s + Exposure Mode – Manual
Posted on: Fri, 29 Aug 2014 11:04:13 +0000
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