Bees/or Development Journal 92
NEWLY RECORDED PARASITIC FLY OF HONEY BEES IN SABAH, MALAYSIA Salim Tingek
‘ARS
',
Gudrun Koeniger ’, Nikolaus
Koeniger?
Tenom, Petit Surat 197, 8898 Tenom, Sabah, Malaysia
institut ftir Blenenkunde Karl-von-Frisch-Weg 2, 61440 Oberursel,
observed them feeding on nectar from flowers. Attacks on bees were seen only near hives, where the flies perched on nearby flowers or
branches. From time to time they swooped down to bees at the hive
Germany
Keywords: Apis cerana, Apis dorsata, Apis koschevnikovi, Apis mellifera, Asia, bee parasite, Borneo, Conopid,
Physocephala paralleliventris, thickhead flies
bee yard of the Agricultural Research Station Tenom in north-east Borneo, many colonies of the Asian hive bee Apis cerana were In a
observed to have bees crawling on the ground underneath the hives. In some cases there were hundreds of dead bees nearby. We collected crawling and dead bees. By pressing the abdomen, two blackish stigma extruded from the sting chamber (Figure 4).
entrance. We observed these conopid flies also near Apis Koschevnikovi and Apis dorsata honey bee colonies and consequently collected and dissected crawling or dead bees of these species. These were found
also to contain the fly larvae and pupae. The emerging flies were similar to the ones from Apis cerana. We sent adult flies that emerged from Apis cerana to the Natural History Museum London, UK for species determination. They were examined by Nigel Wyatt and identified as Physocephala paralleliventris Kréber. This species had been described in 1924 by a German
biologist from northern Borneo. According to Wyatt there do not appear species. In general, conopids parasitise a wide range of stinging Hymenoptera (wasps and bees), but there are relatively few records from Apis species, and up to now these are invariably from Apis mellifera. to be any published host records of this
Evidence of parasite : dissected these bees and saw fly larvae and pupae. In the crawling uees, we found fly larvae with narrow anterior segments (proboscis) and at their end, stigma for breathing (Figure 2). They almost filled the whole abdomen. The dead bees mostly contained fly pupae (Figure 3).
Figure 2. Larvae of a conopid fly
was always in the sting chamber so the fly
The position of their stigma could obtain oxygen even within a dead bee. These fly larvae and pupae were typical ‘thickhead flies’ (Conopiaae).
We installed dead bee traps (which were Gary traps modified for Apis cerana) and monitored the colonies for at least four weeks. We
collected more than 300 dead bees from each colony and again examined them using a Stereo microscope for fly larvae and pupae. From the 13 tested colonies, ail in different locations, 12 were infested. The infestation rate of the dead bees ranged from 10-90% of the colony. We could not yet evaluate the damage to the colony and the honey crop loss.
Adult fly By this time we had not observed the adult insect. Therefore we placed some dead bees on humid soil in several jars. After about two weeks an It conopid fly (Figure 4 overleaf) hatched from the abdomen of the uee. Once familiar with the appearance of the conopid flies, we
PHOTOS
NIKOLAUS KOENIGER
Figure
1.
Two stigma protruding from the sting chamber
Figure 3. Pupa of
a
conopid fly partly removed from a dead bee
