The Africanized Honey Bee
(www-biology.ucsd.edu/.
Scientific name: Apis mellifera scutellata Lepeletier
Common names: Africanized honeybee, African honey bee, Killer bee
Country of origin: Originally from Africa, where it's ancestors still thrive today.
Mode of introduction: The Africanized Honeybee was first introduced to the Western Hemisphere in the mid 1960's, in South America to help increase honey production in the region. The bees have since then swarmed further north, up through Mexico and into the United states. Africanized honey bees were first found in southern Texas in 1990 and now are found throughout much of the southern United States. These honey bees migrated north because they follow rain, more rain means more plant growth, which means more food. (Ojar, 2002)
Distribution Map of Western Hemisphere
(www.columbia.edu/.../
United States Distribution Map (http://www.ars.usda.gov/images/docs/11059_11253/New_Bee_Map.jpg)
Characteristics: The Africanized honey bee is one of the many hybrid species of the European Honey bee subspecies, making it very similar in appearance. These bees are about 3/4 of an inch lone, robust and covered in fuzz. They are brownish in color with black stripes, and four clear wings that attach to the thorax. The only way to distinguish African from European honey bees is in a a laboratory; the European being slightly longer than the African. (Ojar, 2002)
Temperament: Unlike the Temperamental European honey bee, the Africanized honey bee will attack at anytime even when unprovoked responding rapidly with large numbers to any stimulant the European honey bee would ignore. (Ojar, 2002)
Why the bees are a problem: These invasive bees are dangerous dangerous because they are aggressive and since there introduction in Brazil around 1,000 humans have been killed by them. The single sting is not deadly the fact that a human gets stung ten times more compared to the common European honey bee. The Africanized honey bee has been known to chase its victims up to a quarter mile. Not only have they hurt the human population but they have hurt the now native European honey bee and the honey industries. The Africanized honey bee will out compete native bee species and take over a hive quickly. Since their introduction the annual honey harvest has decreased form 10 billion dollars a year to 140 million dollars a year. One reason for this is that beekeepers don't want to deal with the aggressive bees that took over their hives, and the hives will be abandoned. Africanized honey bees have contributed greatly to the lose of the European honeybee in the Western Hemisphere. (Ojar, 2002)
What Makes Africanized honey bee successful:
Constantly moving and taking over hives
Can survive with minimal amounts of pollen and nectar.
The entire colonies can move very fast to find food.
Not particular when finding nesting site.
Highly defensive.
Can detect humans and animals from up to 50 feet from hive
Can detect vibration from power equipment from 100 feet of hive. (Ojar, 2002)
Image from( http://www.columbia.edu/itc/cerc/danoff-burg/invasion_bio/inv_spp_summ/Apis_mellifera_scutellata.htm)
Controlling the Africanized honey bee: The Africanized honey bee can be controlled by beekeepers keeping large numbers of European honey bees in areas were the queen mates, this limits the mating possibilities of the African and European honey bees interbreeding. This method of control is called drone- flooding. (Ojar, 2002)
Benefits: These bees have benefited reproduction of flora in the tropics by 25%- 30%. (Ojar, 2002)
The Honey Bee
(General Information For All Honey Bees)
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Apidae
Subfamily: Apinae
Phylum:
Arthropod
(Day
1996)
(http://Jamesonsfarm.com)
Characteristics: Drones are 3/4 to 5/8 inches long, workers are 2/5 to 3/5 inches long and the queen is usually 3/5 to 3/4 of an inch long. All honey bees are covered in golden brown and black hairs with stripped abdomen. (Day 1996)
Anatomy of the honey bee (http://www.insecta-inspecta.com/bees/honey/hbeelabel1.gif)
Hierarchy: Each hive is made up of a queen, drones, and workers. The queen is the only female that is responsible for reproduction, drones are fertile males that mate with queens, and workers are sterile females that are responsible for feeding the queen, maintaining the hive, gathering the pollen and nectar, and protecting the hive. (Day 1996)
Queen bee (http://images.livescience.com/images/060306_queen_bee_04.jpg)
Drone bee (http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/978/50387038.jpg)
Worker bee (http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/beebook/worker/imgs/worker.gif)
In order from left; Worker, Drone. Queen (http://www.uni.uiuc.edu/~stone2/Q_W_D%202.sized)
Habitat: Honey bees are often found around flowers and flowering trees, and a swarm can make a nest anywhere in nature including built structures such as man made hives, old abandoned cars barns houses... No honey bee is native to the Western Hemisphere, the bees were brought over by the Europeans. (Ojar, 2002)
Ecological impact: For the most part the honey bees have played a big role on how successful crops and wild plants are. As a key pollinator bees help keep plant abundant for animal and human consumption. (Day 1996)
Interesting facts: Worker honey bees, when they retune to the hive with nectar they do a dance known as the "waggle dance" to let the other bees know how far and the whereabouts of the nectar source is from the hive. (Herms 1988)
For more information on the waggle dance please visit ( http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/mes/notes/entnote22.html)
References
USDA. New Bee Map. Retrieved October 29, 2007 from http://www.ars.usda.gov/images/docs/11059_11253/New_Bee_Map.jpg.
University of California. Africanized
Honey bee. Retrieved October 28, 2007. www-biology.ucsd.edu/.
Columbia University. Migration Map.
Retrieved October 27, 2007.www.columbia.edu/.../
Day, E. (1996). Honey bee. Virginia Tech. Retrieved October 28, 2007. http://www.ext.vt.edu/departments/entomology/factsheets/honeybee.html.
DK images. Retrieved October 30, 2007. http://www.dkimages.com/discover/previews/978/50387038.jpg
Tucson agricultural. Worker bees. Retrieved October 30, 2007.http://gears.tucson.ars.ag.gov/beebook/worker/imgs/worker.gif
Insecta Inspecta. honey bees. Retrieved October 30, 2007.http://www.insecta-inspecta.com/bees/honey/hbeelabel1.gif
Herms, D.(1990) The Honeybee Waggle Dance. University of Michigan. Retrieved October 30, 2007 http://insects.ummz.lsa.umich.edu/mes/notes/entnote22.html
Jamesonsfarm. Bee Hive. Retrieved October 30, 2007. (http://Jamesonsfarm.com)
Livescience. Queen Bee. Retrieved on October 29, 2007.http://images.livescience.com/images/060306_queen_bee_04.jpg
Ojar, C. (2002). Africanized Honey Bee. Columbia University. Retrieved October 28, 2007. http://www.columbia.edu/itc/cerc/danoff-burg/invasion_bio/inv_spp_summ/Apis_mellifera_scutellata.htm Accessed 10/29/07
University of Illinois. honey bee. Retrieved on October 29, 2007. http://www.uni.uiuc.edu/~stone2/Q_W_D%202.sized
