The dwarf honey bee (or red dwarf honey bee), Apis florea, is one of two species of small, wild honey bees of southern and southeastern Asia. It has a much wider distribution than its sister species, Apis andreniformis. First identified in the late 18th century, Apis florea is unique for its morphology, foraging behavior and defensive mechanisms like making a piping noise. Apis florea have open nests and small colonies, which makes them more susceptible to predation than cavity nesters with large numbers of defensive workers. The species is an important pollinator in many parts of its range and its nests are occasionally exploited as a source of wild honey.
Taxonomy and phylogeny Danish zoologist Johan Christian Fabricius first identified Apis florea in 1787. A. florea is a member of the Apis genus. The name Florea is a personal name of Romanian origin.
A. florea and its sister species A. andreniformis together form the subclade Micrapis and are the most basal extant species of honey bees, diverging before the two other extant honey bee clades, Megapis (the giant honey bees) and Apis (the eastern and western honey bees and their close relatives). The timing of the Micrapis species' divergence from the other extant honey bee species is not known with certainty due to the difficulty in calibrating molecular phylogenies with the fossil record for the Apis genus.
Description and identification
A. florea is called the dwarf honey bee due to its small size compared to other honeybees. A worker is typically 7–10 mm in body length and its overall coloration is red-brown.Oldroyd, Benjamin P., and Siriwat Wongsiri. Asian honey bees: biology, conservation, and human interactions. Harvard University Press, 2009. A colony builds a single, exposed comb usually on tree branches or shrubs. A. florea produce honey that is harvested and eaten in parts of its range.Gupta, Rakesh Kumar. Beekeeping for Poverty Alleviation and Livelihood Security. N.p., 2014. Web. They are excellent pollinators, which gives them an important ecological role in the places they inhabit. Drones carry a thumb-like bifurcation called the basitarsus, which is located two-thirds along the length of the tibia. The fimbriate lobe of A. florea has three protrusions and they sting using two stylet barbs.Wongsiri, S., et al. "Comparative biology of Apis andreniformis and Apis florea in Thailand." Bee World 78.1 (1997): 23-35.
Apis florea and its sister species together comprise the subgenus Micrapis, and are the most primitive of the living species of Apis, reflected in their small colony size, and simple nest construction. The exposed single combs are built on branches of shrubs and small trees. The forager bees do not perform a gravity-oriented waggle dance on the vertical face of the comb to recruit nestmates as in the domesticated Apis mellifera and other species. Instead, they perform the dance on the horizontal upper surface where the comb wraps around the supporting branch. The dance is a straight run pointing directly to the source of pollen or nectar the forager has been visiting. The distinctiveness of the two species A. florea and A. andreniformis was established unequivocally in the 1990s. A. florea is redder and old workers always have a red first abdomen (younger workers are paler in colour, as is the case in giant honey bees); A. andreniformis is generally darker and the first abdomen segment is completely black in old bees. Distinguishing characteristics of the dwarf honey bees are outlined below: CharacteristicA. floreaA. andreniformisWorkersBody length (mm)7-108-9Overall colorationRed-brownBlackProboscis length (mm)3.11-3.372.797-2.798Forewing length (mm)6.17-6.746.43-6.49Forewing width (mm)2.12-2.322.17-2.21Hindwing length (mm)3.17-4.833.22-3.23Hindwing width (mm)1.36±0.041.25-1.28Comb dimensionsVertical length (from support bottom) (cm)12.0±310.0±3.3Horizontal width (cm)16.9±5.312.2±3.6Branch diameter (cm)0.8±0.071.7±1.7Worker cell dimensionsDepth of cell (cm)0.93±0.070.76±0.02Width of 10 cells (cm)2.98±0.152.78±0.23Drone cell dimensionsDepth of cell (cm)1.33±0.071.45±0.71Width of 10 cells (cm)4.88±0.214.18±0.24Queen cell dimensionsDepth of cell (cm)1.41±0.151.24±0.26Internal diameter of cell (cm)0.47±0.090.54±0.08
Distribution and habitat A. florea spans the continents of Asia and Africa and is most commonly seen in Southeastern Asia (Thailand), the Northeastern part of India, China, and forested regions of the Middle East.Otis GW (1991) Revised distribution of three recently recognised species of honey bees in Asia. Honeybee Sci 15:167-170. Print. A. florea reach a decision about a new nesting site via dancing.Oldroyd, Benjamin P. et al. “Nest Site Selection in the Open-Nesting Honeybee Apis Florea.” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 62.10 (2008): 1643–1653. Web. They decide on a site when the largest number of individuals dance in the direction of the new site. The workers use an auditory signal of piping to indicate a decision about a new site has been reached, with the top of the swarm lifting off into the air first, followed by the bottom of the swarm and then the middle reaching the air last, but all within one minute of the swarm’s initial lift off. Since dancing is a common mechanism of communicating about a new nesting site in both A. florea and A. mellifera, it is suggested that this form of nest site selection evolved in the common ancestor of Apis. However, A. florea do not re-evaluate a site before several individuals move to the new site like A. mellifera does. Instead, swarms travel to the new site as a group and leave to a new site if it is later discovered to be unsuitable. This makes searching for new sites a much faster process for A. florea, but not necessarily more accurate.Makinson, James C et al. “Moving Home: Nest-Site Selection in the Red Dwarf Honeybee (Apis Florea).” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 65.5 (2015): 945–958. Print.
Apis florea are found in southeastern Asian countries, especially in Thailand, Iran, Oman, United Arab Emirates, India, Myanmar, and some parts of China, Cambodia, and Vietnam. Since 1985 Apis florea is also found in Sudan. They live in forest habitats but they are also pollinators of tropical fruit crops in Thailand.Deowanish, S., et al. "Biodiversity of dwarf honey bees in Thailand." Proc. 7th Int. Conf. Trop. Bees, Chiang Mai, Thailand. 2001. Apis florea build exposed nests always with a single comb on a single branch. If they are building a new nest near to the old one, they salvage the wax from the old nest. Other species of honeybee do not exhibit this behavior, perhaps because of the risk of contaminating pathogens.Hepburn, Randall, et al. "Comb Wax Salvage by the Red Dwarf Honeybee, Apis Florea F." Journal of Insect Behavior 23.2 (2010): 159-64. ProQuest. Web. 28 Mar. 2015. Even within the species this behavior differs, the colonies that migrate less than 200 meters engage in wax recycling, but the colonies that migrate longer distances do not.Pirk, Christian W., et al. "Economics of Comb Wax Salvage by the Red Dwarf Honeybee, Apis Florea." Journal of Comparative Physiology.B, Biochemical, Systemic, and Environmental Physiology 181.3 (2011): 353-9. ProQuest. Web. 28 Mar. 2015.
In 2024, a fully established colony of Apis florea was recorded for the first ever time in Europe in Malta.
Colony cycle The annual colony cycle of honeybees involves migration, swarming, and absconding. A. florea migrate seasonally from one habitat to another. This might increase colony fitness, as the honeybees search for new territories, resources, or a reduction in parasites. Once a colony has outgrown its hive space, it will reproduce via swarming. During warmer seasons like spring and summer, ambient temperatures allow honeybees to forage actively, and they will reproduce frequently. During the colder seasons of autumn and winter, colonies diminish in size because they depend on food stores. Before swarming, the colony will build queen cells in order for virgin queens to rear young queens. Before the new queens emerge, the colony’s workers search for a new nesting site. Afterwards, the bees will choose who stays and who goes. Similar to absconding behavior, the old queen will swarm while the new queens prepare for emergence.Suwannapong, Guntima, Mark Eric, and James C Nieh. Biology of Thai Honeybees : Natural History and Threats. N.p., 2011. Print.
Breeding and lifespan In a single patriline, more workers mean the colony will produce more drones.Palmer, K.a., and B.P. Oldroyd. “Mating Frequency in Apis Florea Revisited (Hymenoptera, Apidae).” Insectes Sociaux 48.1 (2001): 40–43. Web. High mating frequency in A. florea has been evolutionarily selected for as observed in other members of the genus. The average lifespan of a drone is 15.6 days, ranging from 6–41 days. The queen has a much longer lifespan consistent with the longevity of the colony.Breed, Michael D, Xiao-bao Deng, and Robert Buchwald. “Comparative Nestmate Recognition in Asian Honey Bees, Apis Florea, Apis Andreniformis, Apis Dorsata, and Apis Cerana.” Comparative and General Pharmacology 38 (2007): 411–418. Web. A. florea have workers that police to ensure that workers’ eggs are destroyed at twice the rate of queens’ eggs using oophagy. The queens’ eggs are marked as to avoid destruction by worker bees. Since this behavior is also observed in A. mellifera, this suggests that policing mechanism behaviors evolved before the divergence of the genus Apis.Halling, L et al. “Worker Policing in the Dwarf Bee Apis Florea.” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology 49.6 (2001): 509–513. Print.
Diet A. florea adults eat primarily honey and nectar but also feed the brood on pollen. Future queens are fed royal jelly and are reared in larger cells so they become larger.
Foraging A. florea adopt the open-comb branch site as an information center for foraging. The branch platforms serves as a location for bee dancing that conveys important foraging information to other bees. They are commonly seen foraging near branches and small bushes. They mainly forage for pollen and nectar as food sources as well as water and safety from predators.Sciences, E D P, and E D P Sciences. “Reinforcing a Barrier – a Specific Social Defense of the Dwarf Honeybee (Apis.” Apidologie 36 (2005): 505–511. Web. Their frequent foraging and long migration range displays their high degree of mobility. They tend to build combs at lower elevations, away from direct sunlight and on the peripheral side of plant branches.Narayanaswamy, R, and S Basavarajappa. “Nesting Attributes of Dwarf Bee, Apis Florea F . under Urban Ecosystem of Manasagangotri Campus, Mysore, India.” 2.6 (2013): 6–15. Print. A. florea forage openly, unlike A. cerana that mostly forage in parts of the hive that are not visible. Dialect observed in A. florea does not correlate with foraging range. A. florea tend to have longer foraging durations when compared to other bees in this genus, perhaps because they require smaller territories at lower altitudes and build open-combs on branches or twigs. Their small size necessitates more time to forage for pollen or nectar because they have a limit on how much food they can carry. Therefore, it is worth the cost of foraging for a longer duration if it means gaining the benefit of a highly nutritious food source.Dyer, F.C., and T.D. Seeley. “Dance Dialects and Foraging Range in 3 Asian Honey-Bee Species.” Behav. Ecol. Sociobiol. 28.4 (1991): 227–233. Web.
Competition