scholarly journals Potential Honey Bee Plants of Egypt

2015 ◽  
Vol 48 (2) ◽  
pp. 99-108 ◽  
Author(s):  
H.F. Abou-Shaara

AbstractThere are various plants with potential feeding importance to honey bee, Apis mellifera, colonies as source of pollen, nectar or both. Selection of suitable regions for apiaries mainly depends on the availability of honey bee plants in the apiary region. Identifying honey bee plants in specific region is very essential for honey and pollen production from honey bee colonies. Lacking the information about the beneficial plants for honey bees including; plant name, flowering time and potential benefit to honey bee colonies could be considered as a limitation for beekeeping development. So far honey bee plants are not well studied in Egypt. This review paper presents potential honey bee plants in Egypt using the available publications. The studies on honey bee plants in Egypt were also reviewed. This work can be considered as a guide for beekeepers and researchers. Moreover, the presented plants here can be used in comparing honey bee plants of Egypt with other countries to get a better understanding of honey bee flora. More detailed investigations on honey bee plants are strongly required to be done at all Egyptian Governorates

1999 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 321-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Geraldo Moretto ◽  
Leonidas João de Mello Jr.

Different levels of infestation with the mite Varroa jacobsoni have been observed in the various Apis mellifera races. In general, bees of European races are more susceptible to the mite than African honey bees and their hybrids. In Brazil honey bee colonies are not treated against the mite, though apparently both climate and bee race influence the mite infestation. Six mixed colonies were made with Italian and Africanized honey bees. The percentage infestation by this parasite was found to be significantly lower in adult Africanized (1.69 ± 0.44) than Italian bees (2.79 ± 0.65). This ratio was similar to that found in Mexico, even though the Africanized bees tested there had not been in contact with varroa, compared to more than 20 years of the coexistence in Brazil. However, mean mite infestation in Brazil on both kinds of bees was only about a third of that found in Mexico.


1988 ◽  
Vol 66 (9) ◽  
pp. 1997-2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Linda A. Fergusson ◽  
Mark L. Winston

Various levels of wax deprivation in honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies induced shifts in the temporal pattern of division of labour in worker honey bees. The most extreme wax stress induced an earlier onset of foraging, and an increase in comb building and the production of wax scales. Moderate wax stress induced only an increase in comb building and production of wax scales. No significant differences in development of hypopharyngeal gland acinal diameter were found, suggesting that production of wax and brood food and associated behaviour patterns develop and decline independently. The graded changes in behavioural response to various levels of stress found in this study support the concept of a reserve labour force in honey bee colonies, which can respond to stress through shifts in caste ontogeny.


2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tim Regan ◽  
Mark W. Barnett ◽  
Dominik R. Laetsch ◽  
Stephen J. Bush ◽  
David Wragg ◽  
...  

AbstractThe European honey bee (Apis mellifera) plays a major role in pollination and food production, but is under threat from emerging pathogens and agro-environmental insults. As with other organisms, honey bee health is a complex product of environment, host genetics and associated microbes (commensal, opportunistic and pathogenic). Improved understanding of bee genetics and their molecular ecology can help manage modern challenges to bee health and production. Sampling bee and cobiont genomes, we characterised the metagenome of 19 honey bee colonies across Britain. Low heterozygosity was observed in bees from many Scottish colonies, sharing high similarity to the native dark bee, A. mellifera mellifera. Apiaries exhibited high diversity in the composition and relative abundance of individual microbiome taxa. Most non-bee sequences derived from known honey bee commensal bacteria or known pathogens, e.g. Lotmaria passim (Trypanosomatidae), and Nosema spp. (Microsporidia). However, DNA was also detected from numerous additional bacterial, plant (food source), protozoan and metazoan organisms. To classify sequences from cobionts lacking genomic information, we developed a novel network analysis approach clustering orphan contigs, allowing the identification of a pathogenic gregarine. Our analyses demonstrate the power of high-throughput, directed metagenomics in agroecosystems identifying potential threats to honey bees present in their microbiota.


Viruses ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (6) ◽  
pp. 969
Author(s):  
Isobel Grindrod ◽  
Jessica L. Kevill ◽  
Ethel M. Villalobos ◽  
Declan C. Schroeder ◽  
Stephen John Martin

The combination of Deformed wing virus (DWV) and Varroa destructor is arguably one of the greatest threats currently facing western honey bees, Apis mellifera. Varroa’s association with DWV has decreased viral diversity and increased loads of DWV within honey bee populations. Nowhere has this been better studied than in Hawaii, where the arrival of Varroa progressively led to the dominance of the single master variant (DWV-A) on both mite-infested Hawaiian Islands of Oahu and Big Island. Now, exactly 10 years following the original study, we find that the DWV population has changed once again, with variants containing the RdRp coding sequence pertaining to the master variant B beginning to co-dominate alongside variants with the DWV-A RdRp sequence on the mite-infested islands of Oahu and Big Island. In speculation, based on other studies, it appears this could represent a stage in the journey towards the complete dominance of DWV-B, a variant that appears better adapted to be transmitted within honey bee colonies.


2018 ◽  
Vol 62 (1) ◽  
pp. 141-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mayra C. García-Anaya ◽  
Alejandro Romo-Chacón ◽  
Alma I. Sáenz-Mendoza ◽  
Gerardo Pérez-Ordoñez ◽  
Carlos H. Acosta-Muñiz

Abstract The recent alarming loss of honey bee colonies around the world is believed to be related to the presence of viruses. The aim of this study was to detect two major viral diseases, Apis mellifera Filamentous virus (AmFV) and Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) using Reverse Transcription - Polymerase Chain Reaction RT-PCR, in honey bees in Mexico. Adult and larvae honey bee samples were collected from asymptomatic colonies of six major beekeeping regions in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. Both viruses were detected in both developmental stages of honey bees, IAPV at a higher prevalence (23.5%) as compared to AmFV, only in 0.9% of samples. However, this is the first report on AmFV infection in Mexican apiaries. Further studies are required to understand the AmFV and IAPV impact on colony loss in Mexico and to develop strategies for enhancing the control of viral diseases.


2019 ◽  
pp. 59-66
Author(s):  
Zheko Radev

The analysis of the honey plants in the area of apiculture is very important about the development, reproduction and productivity of bee colonies. The knowledge of the floral specialization of Apis mellifera L. is main point for good beekeeping practices. The bees have visited 46 species of honey plants from 41 genera and 22 families. The honey bees prefer to collect pollen from 2 to 5-6 plant species during every single month. Bees mainly collect pollen from two or three plants every month. The agricultural species Brassica napus as well as the meadow flora – Сentaurea solstitialis and Centaurea cyanus are the most visited honey plants during their flowering. Bees prefer to collect pollen from 16 plants out of 46 visited taxons. Not all plants in the area serve as a source of pollen for the bees. The greatest amount of collected pollen comes from Brassica napus – 3798.69 g. The visited cultivated honey taxons are around 22 % but about 56.5 % of the total amount collected pollen. Around 78 % of the visited plants are common natural as well as about 43.5 % of the total amount collected pollen. Key words: honey bee, honey plants, pollen, pollen traps, melissopalynologia, specialization


2015 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlos Aurelio Medina-Flores ◽  
Ernesto Guzmán-Novoa ◽  
M. M. Hamiduzzaman ◽  
Jairo Aguilera-Soto ◽  
Marco Antonio López-Carlos

This study was conducted to analyze the process of Africanization of managed honey bee (Apis mellifera) colonies by determining the frequency of African and European morphotypes and mitotypes (mtDNA) in three different ecological environments of northern Mexico. Colonies (n= 151) were sampled in 1) temperate semi-dry; 2) semi-warm semi-dry; and 3) temperate sub-humid regions in the state of Zacatecas. The mtDNA type was determined by PCR-RFLP and the morphotype by the Fast Africanized Bee Identification System (FABIS). Out of all the colonies sampled in all areas, the mtDNA analysis showed a significantly higher frequency of European maternal lineage (77.5%) than of African maternal lineage (22.5%; P <0.0001). The morphometric analysis classified 47% of the colonies as European and 42.4% of them as Africanized. The frequency of colonies with African or European mitotypes and morphotypes varied significantly between regions (P <0.05) with results indicating a higher degree of Africanization in the semi-warm semi-dry region. Conversely, the highest frequency of colonies with the European morphotype and mitotype occurred in the temperate semi-dry region. These results suggest that the environment affects the degree of Africanization of honey bee colonies in northern Mexico. Colonies established at higher altitudes and in more temperate climates have more European genotypes than colonies established in tropical regions. Several hypotheses are discussed to explain these results.


2010 ◽  
Vol 55 (No. 9) ◽  
pp. 457-462 ◽  
Author(s):  
I. Tlak Gajger ◽  
O. Vugrek ◽  
D. Grilec ◽  
Z. Petrinec

Nosema disease of European honey bees afflicts bees worldwide. Nosema ceranae is a recently described microsporidian parasite of the honey bee (Apis mellifera) and its geographical distribution is not well known. The disease may have many negative effects on bee colonies and cause high losses for apiculture and consequently in agriculture. With this in mind, a total of 204 samples of dead bees from different localities in Croatia were selected and investigated for distribution, prevalence and diversity of N. ceranae infection, using light microscopic examination and multiplex PCR. Our results show that N. ceranae is the only nosema species found to infect honeybees in our geographically varied collection. The nucleotide sequences of amplicons from Nosema-infested honeybee samples were 100% identical with the N. ceranae sequence deposited in the GenBank database. N. ceranae infected bees were found in samples collected from each of 21 districts, and in all three climatic areas, i.e., mediterranean, mountain, and continental parts regions of Croatia.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 1367-1377 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brock A Harpur ◽  
Samir M Kadri ◽  
Ricardo O Orsi ◽  
Charles W Whitfield ◽  
Amro Zayed

Abstract In 1957, an invasive and highly defensive honey bee began to spread across Brazil. In the previous year, Brazilian researchers hoped to produce a subtropical-adapted honey bee by crossing local commercial honey bees (of European origin) with a South African honey bee subspecies (Apis mellifera scutellata; an A-lineage honey bee subspecies). The resulting cross—African hybrid honey bees (AHBs)—escaped from their enclosure and spread through the Americas. Today, AHB is the most common honey bee from Northern Argentina to the Southern United States. AHBs are much more likely to sting nest intruders than managed European-derived honey bee colonies. Previous studies have explored how genetic variation contributes to differences in defense response between European-derived honey bee and AHB. Although this work demonstrated very strong genetic effects on defense response, they have yet to pinpoint which genes influence variation in defense response within AHBs, specifically. We quantified defense response for 116 colonies in Brazil and performed pooled sequencing on the most phenotypically divergent samples. We identified 65 loci containing 322 genes that were significantly associated with defense response. Loci were strongly associated with metabolic function, consistent with previous functional genomic analyses of this phenotype. Additionally, defense-associated loci had nonrandom and unexpected patterns of admixture. Defense response was not simply the product of more A-lineage honey bee ancestry as previously assumed, but rather an interaction between A-lineage and European alleles. Our results suggest that a combination of A-lineage and European alleles play roles in defensive behavior in AHBs.


2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 400-403
Author(s):  
Nazia Haleem ◽  
Neelima R. Kumar ◽  
Rajinder Kaur

Honey bees are an important means of earning a living both at small and commercial levels. Maximum benefits can be obtained from strong colonies and in order to maintain strong colonies a good beekeeper requeens the colonies every second year. This requires a number of queens. The advances in beekeeping technology have made it possible to rear queens artificially or naturally. There is scope for improvement of these methods. The aim of the present study was to investigate if nutritional supplements could facilitate queen cell production in spring and autumn seasons. Becosule, thiamine, yeast and sugar solutions were fed to the honey bee colonies. The greatest number of queen cells was produced in the yeast fed colonies in spring. Bee mortality was observed in case of becosule. Perhaps the formulation contained some components which were toxic to honey bees. The effect on queen cell production by the different nutrients was in the order of Yeast > Thiamine > Becosule.


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