INTRODUCTION:
         The honey bees are one of the most well known insects owing to their production of honey, pollination of crop plants and highly evolved eusocial behaviour. It belongs to the genus Apis Linnaeus of the family Apidae under order Hymenoptera. Currently, seven species with many subspecies of honey bees have been recognized as valid worldwide. They are Apis mellifera Linnaeus, A. cerana Fabricius, A. dorsata Fabricius, A. florea Fabricius, A. andreniformis Smith, A. koschevnikovi Enderlein and A. nigrocincta Smith of  which, A. cerana, A. dorsata, A. florea and A. andreniformis are indigenous species to India. All these native species are widely distributed in India except A. andreniformis which is yet reported only from some north-eastern states of India. A. mellifera, an introduced European honey bee for agricultural purposes, is now well established throughout India. There are three extant subgenera namely, the Megapis (the giant honey bees), Micrapis (the dwarf honey bees) and Apis s str. (typical honey bees). All these subgenera are known from India. The indigenous species of India are making their nests in open space, while A. cerana which makes nest in tree hollows.

          Honeybees are eusocial insects. In the wild, they construct elaborate nests called hives containing up to 45,000 individuals and domestic hives may have over 80,000 individuals. They work together in a highly organized social order. A colony consists of three specialized group of individuals namely castes. They are queens, drones and workers. There is only one queen in a hive and her main purpose is the production of offsprings. They will live 2-8 years. She is larger in size, and has a longer abdomen than the workers or drones. They have short legs and wings. They neither have wax gland nor the poison apparatus. Drones, since they are males, have no stinger. They live about 8 weeks. Generally 3-5 or maximum up to a few hundred drones are ever present in the hive. Their sole function is to mate with a new queen. Drone’s eyes are bigger than those of other castes. This helps them to spot the queens when they are on the nuptial flight. Workers are smallest among all the castes. They do all the different tasks needed to maintain and operate the hive. They are all sterile females. When young, they are known as house bees and work in the hive doing comb construction, cleaning, temperature regulation, defending the colony, etc. Older workers are known as field bees and they forage outside the hive to collect nectar, pollen, water and certain sticky plant resins used in hive construction. Workers are highly specialized for their jobs with a pollen basket on each hind leg, an extra stomach for storing and transporting nectar and honey and four pairs of special glands that secrete beeswax on the under side of their abdomen. They have a straight barbed stinger which can only be used once. It rips out of their abdomen after use, which kills the bee.


Honey bees are economically very important. Honey is produced from the nectar of flowers collected by the worker bees. It is modified and stored in the honey comb by honey bees as a food reserve for the colony. Bee wax is another useful product manufactured by honey bees. Worker bees of certain age will secrete bee wax from a series of wax glands situated on their abdomen. Honey bee collects pollen in the pollen basket situated on their appendages and carries it to the hive. In the hive, it is used as a protein source necessary for brood-rearing. Royal jelly is another substance which secreted from the salivary glands of worker bees, and is fed to all bee larvae as well as adult queens. After 3 days, the drone and worker larvae are no longer fed royal jelly, but queen larvae continue to be fed with this special substance. Propolis (bee glue) is created from balsams, resins and tree saps. Those species of honey bees which make their nests in tree cavities use propolis to seal the cracks of the hive. Dwarf honey bees use propolis to defend the nests against the ants by coating the branch from which their nest is suspended to create a sticky surface.

List of Honey bees in India       

Genus: Apis Linnaeus
   Subgenus: Apis Linnaeus
1. A. cerana Fabricius, 1793
       A. c. cerana Fabricius
       A. c. indica Fabricius
2. A. mellifera Linnaeus, 1758†
Subgenus: Megapis Ashmead
3. A. dorsata Fabricius, 1793
       A. dorsata binghami Cockerell
       A. dorsata dorsata Fabricius 
       A. dorsata laboriosa Smith
Subgenus: Micrapis Ashmead
4. A. andreniformis Smith, 1858
5. A. florea Fabricius, 1787
 (†) Introduced species.

1. Apis (Apis) cerana Fabricius
           This species is commonly known as the Asiatic honey bee or the Eastern honey bee of southern and southeastern Asia. It is the species most often used in apiculture and other agricultural purposes, although to a lesser degree since the introduction of A. mellifera (Joshi et al., 1980). Their honey yield is less, because they form smaller colonies. Apis cerana have two subspecies namely; A. cerana cerana distributed in high altitudes, known as “hill bees”; and A. cerana indica distributed in plains, known as “plain bees”.  These two subspecies of A. cerana are genetically differentiated according to the presence of two different haplotypes in their mitochondrial DNA.

      Its morphology and behaviour are very close to A. mellifera. However, it has species specific characters and is genetically separate from A. mellifera. The diagnostic morphological characters of this species are: scutellum yellowish brown (rarely black); fore wing 7-9 mm in length, hyaline; hind wing with distal abscissa of vein M present; drones with unmodified tarsi; the size of the workers moderate, equal or somewhat smaller than A. mellifera, and they also have more prominent abdominal stripes.

2. Apis (Apis) mellifera Linnaeus
          This species is commonly known as European honey bee or Western honey bee. It is colonized a vast area within a relatively short period. This is the most commonly domesticated species. This bee species was introduced to our country during 1964 and its yield was found to be about four times than that of A. cerana indica (Atwal and Sharma, 1970).
This introduced species can be separated from all other native species by the following combination of characters: moderate in size (7-10 mm); wings hyaline; distal abscissa of vein M in hind wing absent; drones without metabasitarsal process.

3.Apis (Megapis) dorsata Fabricius
          This species is commonly known as the giant honey bee owing to its large body size. Their native habitat is southern and southeastern Asia. The sting of the workers of this species is probably the most painful among all the honey bee species. It is very ferocious and has not been domesticated in spite of its yield being higher than the other Indian species. Majority of honey and wax harvested in our country comes from this species (Singh, 1980). Usually it builds large nests in exposed places far away from the ground, most often high in trees or undisturbed buildings affixed to the underside. There are three subspecies reported from India, namely, A. dorsata binghami, A. dorsata dorsata and A. dorsata laboriosa. The nominate subspecies, namely, Apis dorsata dorsata is widely distributed in India. The subspecies A. dorsata binghami with limited distribution records and so far reported only from Sikkim and Meghalaya. The other subspecies, namely, A. dorsata laboriosa is commonly known as Himalayan honey bee or Himalayan cliff honey bee found in the Himalaya at high altitude. The A. dorsata laboriosa is proved to be as a good pollinator of apple.

The diagnostic morphological characters for identifying this species are: distal abscissa of vein M in hind wing present; fore wing infumated; scutellum black; drones with dense frond-like setae on meso- and metatarsi; worker size large; fore wing length 12-15 mm. Two behavioural characteristics of this species are remarkable. First, they have a well organized mass defence reaction. An intruder once marked by the odour of a specific pheromone (2-decen-1-yl- acetate) by being stung is followed for kilometers. Secondly, they seasonally migrate to locations 100-200 km distance every year. The timing of migration is correlated with the change in the season.

4.Apis (Micrapis) andreniformis Smith
         This species is commonly known as black dwarf honey bee. The native habitat of this species is the tropical and subtropical regions of Asia. In India its distribution is very limited and restricted to the high altitudes of northeastern regions. This is one of the most primitive of the living species of Apis having simple nest construction and small colony size. A. andreniformis is generally more aggressive than A. florea. It is known to attack when there are disturbances 3-4 m from the hive.
     The diagnostic morphological characters for identifying this species are: workers are small in size, fore wing length 6-7 mm; distal abscissa of vein M in hind wing absent; metatibia and dorsolateral margin of metabasitarsus with black setae; metabasitarsal process of drone soft, less than one half of metabasitarsus length; first two gastral tergites black, in frequently with reddish brown marks apically on first tergum or basally on second tergum. This species closely resembles to Apis forea.

5.Apis (Micrapis) florea Fabricius
          This species is commonly known as red dwarf honey bee. It is one of the smallest and wild honey bees of southern and southeastern Asia. These tiny bees are relatively docile and can be worked with little difficulty; however, some nest disturbances can cause the colony to disappear. They usually build their nests in shades of trees and bushes. Rings of resin at its point of attachment protect the comb against ants. The communication dances of this species are performed on the platform on top of the comb and point directly towards food. It has a much wider distribution than its sister species, A. andreniformis. This species along with A. andreniformis are the most primitive of the living species of honey bees, reflected in their small colony size and simple nest construction. The yield is very poor. So, it is uneconomical to domesticate. They are usually seen in low lands (plains upto 500 m). However seasonal migration occur upto 1500 m and even higher.
     The diagnostics morphological characters of this species are; dorsal abscissa of vein M in hind wing absent; fore wing length 6-7 mm; metatibia and dorsolateral margin of metabasitarsus with white setae; first two metasomal tergum reddish brown; metabasitarsal process of drone long, more than two-thirds of metabasitarsus length.

References

P. Girish Kumar and Arun Kumar Roy Mahato
Zoological Survey of India,
M- Block, New Alipore, Kolkata- 700 053
      West Bengal, India,
E- mail: kpgiris[at]gmail[dot]com