|=
tae el
f-v-Syerm
Mets]
RECENT RESEARCH Am monticola, m scutellata and Am Woyi-Gambella (Amssalu et al, 2004;
Apis mellifera Woyi-Gambella (AB) honey bees endemic to
knowledge of them, a more detailed study, geographically broader in scope, and with a finer sampling distance resolution (100 km)
Ethiopia
was conducted. Accordingly, five statistically distinct morpho-clusters occupying different
Amssalu Bezabeh carried out this research for his PhD thesis at Holeta Bee Research Centre. Here we provide a summary of his findings (references cited are with this article on the BfD website Information Centre). A full paper has been submitted to the Journal Apiacta.
agro-ecologies were identified:
other African honey bee groups and is
Apis mellifera bandasii,
endemic to Ethiopia.
Figure
A
m
jemenitica,
A
Amssalu, 2003; Nuru, 2003).
Apis mellifera Woy!-Gambella differs from all
ETHIOPIA
4
RELIEF
Africa is thought to be the origin of Apis mellifera, the honey bee species that occurs in Africa, Europe and the Middle East. A review of Apis mellifera reported the
Over 3001m 2001 - 3000m
Po]
presence of 22 honey bee races and 10 valid geographical races in Africa (Engel, 1999).
[
|
The taxonomy, biology, behaviour and ribution of African races of honey bees 3
i
1001 - 2000m
9-1000m Below sea level
Transitional Zones
been little studied compared with
European races,
Knowledge of the taxonomy of Ethiopian honey bees is minimal. No detailed bandasii
morphometric analyses have been conducted apart from those of Smith (1961), Ruttner te
(1975), Kassaye (1990) and Radloff & Hepburn (1997a). These studies indicate the presence of different African races including Apis mellifera adansonii, m bandasii, A
Am jemenitica, A m litorea, Am monticola, Am scutellata, and A m sudanensis, but the results are not in accord. Besides, none of the results indicated the distribution, behaviour and biology of honey bees within Ethiopia.
Some of the studies did not use adequate sample sizes during the analysis. To resolve
Q
An international research team has shown that
!
Sciences
at The Australian National University (ANU). “The scout bees perform the so-called ‘bee dances’ inside the nest. The
Asian and European honey bees can learn to understand one another's dance languages despite having evolved different forms of
co-ordinates of distant locations are encoded in the waggle phase of this ballet, with the direction and distance to the food source
communication.
indicated by the orientation and duration of the dance. This duration differs across honey
The species of Apis honey bees found worldwide separated about 30-50 million
years ago, and subsequently developed different dance ‘languages’. The content of the messages is similar, but the precise encoding of these languages differs between species.
200
250 300 350 400
— he
Kilometres
the ambiguity of information about Ethiopian ley bee races and to establish greater
Mutual understanding
50 100 150
bee species, even if they fly the same distance in the same environment. It is these differences which we can think of as distinct
languages.”
!
1
information and work together to gather food. Asian honey bees followed the dances of European forager bees, and deciphered the encoded information correctly.
“The dance language of honey bees is among the best studied communication systems in the animal kingdom. Nevertheless, surprises are still possible, as we have shown,”
Dr Zhang said. “This work has potentially major implications for our understanding of
animal communication. Next we plan to study the extent of variation between different bee
dance languages.”
“We know that the members of a honey bee colony routinely exchange information via dance about the location of newly discovered
The research team is the first to successfully Study the behaviour of a colony containing a mixture of two different species of bees. One of the first findings of this novel approach was
locations, like feeding places, water or new nesting sites,” explains Dr Shaowu Zhang
that Asian honey bees Apis cerana and European Apis mellifera, after some time of
understand dance language of European honey bees. PLoS ONE 3(6): e2365.
from the Research School of Biological
adjustment in the mixed colony, could share 7
Simon Couper, ANU Media Office Citation: SU S.; CAI F.; SI A.; ZHANG S.: TAUTZ J. et af (2008) East learns from West: Asiatic honey bees can
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0002365 http:/Awww.plosone.org/doi/pone.0002365
