Apis laboriosa

Taxonomy

Family: Apidae
Subfamily: Apinae
Tribe: Apini Latreille, 1802
Genus: Apis Linnaeus, 1758
Subgenus: Apis (Megapis) Ashmead, 1904
Species: Apis laboriosa Smith, 1871
Common names: Himalayan honey bee or cliff bee honey bee

Overview

Apis laboriosa is the largest species of honey bee known at present. Its distribution is restricted, and some of its nesting behaviors are unique.

Diagnostic characteristics

Specimens of A. laboriosa can be differentiated from other species of honey bees by the following combination of characters:

• Forewings fuscousfuscous:
  gray-brown coloration, generally used to describe wing color
  and over 12 mm in length (Fig 2 and 7).
• Distal distal:
  place on a segment that is furthest from the place of attachment with the body
  abscissaabscissa:
  veins that help define wing cells
  of vein M in hind wing present (Fig 7).
• Nest composed of single comb built under overhangs on vertical cliffs.
• Nests are common in high altitudes above 1200 m (Underwood 1986Underwood 1986:
  Underwood, B. A. 1986. The natural history of Apis laboriosa Smith in Nepal. M.Sc. Thesis, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. 88p.).
• Nests consist of a single large comb.

It can be differentiated from the other species in the subgenus A. (Megapis) (i.e. Apis dorsata) by the following combination of characters:

• Workers with scutellumscutellum:
  shield shaped plate behind scutum
  black (Fig 5) and metasomal T3–T4 reddish-brown (Fig 3, 6, and 8).
• Distribution restricted to the Himalayas.
• Found at altitudes from 2500 m up to 4000 m above sea level (Roubik et al. 1985Roubik et al. 1985:
  Roubik, D.W., S. Sakagami, and I. Kudo. 1985. Note on distribution and nesting of the Himalayan honey bee Apis laboriosa Smith (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 58 (4): 746ndash;749.).
• Colonies usually nest under cliffs and never in aggregations.
• Foragers don’t produce sound during waggle dance.

Host associations

As all species of honey bees, A. laboriosa is polylecticpolylectic:
bees that collect pollen from the flowers of a variety of unrelated plants
and visits a broad range of plants for food.

Nesting behavior

Nests are constructed in the open and consist of a single comb that almost always hangs from rock cliffs at high altitudes. In contrast with Apis dorsata, there are no reports of nest aggregations for this species.

Diversity

There are no races or variations reported for this species. Apis laboriosa was previously thought to be a subspecies of Apis dorsata.

Distribution

This bee occurs in mountainous areas of Nepal, Bhutan, India, and the province of Yunnan in China (Batra 1995Batra 1995:
Batra S. 1995. Biology of Apis laboriosa Smith, a pollinator of apples at high altitudes in the greater Himalaya of Gahrwal, India. Tektran. United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service., Ahmad and Roy 2000Ahmad and Roy 2000:
Ahmad F. amp; P. Roy. 2000. Bhutan: Indigenous Honey Bee Project Study- travel reports. ICIMOD organization, Kathmandu. Available online at: http://www.icimod.org/?q=1511).

​Distribution map generated by Discover Life -- click on map for details, credits, and terms of use.

References

Ahmad F. & P. Roy. 2000. Bhutan: Indigenous Honey Bee Project Study- travel reports. ICIMOD organization, Kathmandu. Available online at: http://www.icimod.org/?q=1511

Basavarajappa S & K. S. Raghunandan. 2013. Colony status of Asian giant honeybee, Apis dorsata Fabricius in Southern Karnataka, India. African Journal of Agricultural Research 8(8): 680–689.

Batra S. 1995. Biology of Apis laboriosa Smith, a pollinator of apples at high altitudes in the greater Himalaya of Gahrwal, India. Tektran. United States Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service.

Roubik D. W., Sakagami S. F. & I. Kudo. 1985. A note on distribution of the Himalayan honeybee Apis laboriosa Smith (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 58:746-749.

Underwood, B. A. 1986. The natural history of Apis laboriosa Smith in Nepal. M.Sc. Thesis, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY. 88p.