A World of Honey Bees Dr. Shoeba - PowerPoint Presentation

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A World of Honey Bees

Dr. Shoeba

Binte

Anis

Assistant Professor

Department of Zoology

A.M.U. Aligarh

WORLD WITHOUT BEES………

“

If the bee disappeared off the

surface of the globe, then man would

only have four years of life left.

No

more pollination

,

no more plants

,

no

more animals, no more man

”

- ALBERT EINSTEIN

Introduction

Honey bees are insects of genus

Apis

, primarily distinguished by the production and storage of honey, bees wax and pollination.

Some common species of honeybees :

Apis

mellifera

(The European Honey Bee, most common domesticated species and of commercial used)

Apis

adamsoni

(The African Honey Bee, found in North Africa )

Apis

dorsata

(The Giant Honey Bee)

Apis

indica

( The common Honey Bee, of moderate size and used as bee keeping)

Apis

florea

(The smallest Indian Honey Bee)

Prehistoric relations

Depictions of humans collecting honey from wild bees date to15,000 years ago, efforts to domesticate them are shown in Egyptian art around 4,500 years ago.

Body parts

The body of honeybees divided into 3 parts:

A.

Head

- antenna & eyes

B.

Thorax

- wings and legs

C.

Abdomen - series of glands

Bee Hive/ Nest

●

Made up of combs, prepared by the workers using wax secreted by the abdominal glands. Plant resin and gums used for the repairing of hive

Natural Bee

hive on tree

The modern beehive

The mating takes place in the air, during a flight called nuptial

flight.A

few males succeed in mating,after the act the queen returned to the comb,start

the colony with same workers. They make swarms and construct the comb by making cells or chambers at the lower end of the comb. The queen lay eggs in such cells.The workers feed them on hatching those which are on the royal jelly throughout upto

the emergence have transformed into a queen, only single queen at one

time,if

two emerged than one has to leave the comb or fight till death.

The workers reared on workers

jelly.The

drones are developed from unfertilised eggs in different chambers called male chambers and these cells are larger than worker

cells.The queen releases the pheromones to supress the formation of queen caste in a colony which is passed through the colony,prevents worker to build queen cell

calledPheromonal

-nutritional inhibition.. The workers have to do a lot of work as:

Cleaning cells, feeding larvae, building cells by using wax from their wax glands, storing pollen and honey in the

cells.Guarding

the

colony,attacking intruders using their sting etc.

The Honey Bee Colony

Three members of the colony

Queen Drone Worker

Sterile Females

About 20,000 to 60,000 in a colony (maximum)

Has several functions throughout her life

Sting present, used to defend the hive and herself

Fertile Female

Single

Function: laying eggs

Sting – only use to kill rival queens

Males

About several hundred in numbers

One function in life – mate with virgin queens

No sting, survivors are forced out of hive in the Fall and die

Honey

A saturated solution of carbohydrates

ca. 17% water

ca. 82.5% sugar:

fructose 38%

glucose 31%

maltose 7%

sucrose 1.5%

contains 0.5% protein, minerals

&

vitamins

Bee Wax

Produced from

four

pairs of sub-dermal glands on the underside of the abdomen of a worker bee.

When the bee is

10 to 18

days old

Produced as small, translucent flakes

Precursor is honey & nectar (carbohydrates)

Communication in Honeybees

By two means

a)Round danceb)Waggle danceThe round dance

The Importance of Honey Bees in nature

As

part of ecosystem

(Pollinators

):

1. They influence ecological relationships

2. Ecosystem conservation

3. Ecosystem stability

4. Genetic variation in plant community

5. Floral

diversity

As part

of

Biodiversity

1. Honey bees enhance agricultural productivity and help maintain biodiversity by providing valuable pollination services.

Convention on Biological Diversity

(CBD) has recognized pollination as a key driver in the maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem function .

In Himalayan region, keeping bees for pollination has been shown to increase the yield and quality and reduce fruits drop in

apple, peach, plum, citrus, kiwi, strawberry,

etc.

When enough bees are present in a forest provide a better pollination that leads to improved regeneration of trees and conservation of forest biodiversity.

As Commercial

importance

Honey

&

Bees wax

The first sweetener (long before sugar cane)

Production:

World:

two billion pounds per

annum

India

:

average honey production with

Apis

mellifera

is 40 to 70 kg/year/colony. India produces 18000MT of honey annually. 

Myriad of minor uses

pharmacy - medicinal vehicle & taste corrective, wound

dressing

Cosmetics.

Bees are an ideal Pollinator

Honey bees are good pollinators for many reasons.

Their hairy body and hind leg trap pollen and carry it between flowers.

The bees require large quantities of nectar and pollen to rear their young, and they visit flowers regularly in large numbers to obtain these foods. In doing so, they concentrate on one species of plant at a time and serve as good pollinators for this reason.

Bees have to learn where in a flower the nectar is to be found

To guide the bees, many plants have bee-tracks which are lines of

colour

leading the bee towards the nectar. Some color lines are visible to the human beings but some can only be seen by the bees as some colour lines have ultra-violet part of the spectrum, guiding the bees to pass the anthers or stigma in the right way.

Pollen and Nectar Collection

Facts About Honey Bees

Globally, 33% of the human diet comes from insect pollinated plants and the honey bee is responsible for 80% of that pollination.

Honey Bees requires 40, 000-80, 000 trips to flowers for collecting one Kg of honey- each trip is two to three km long.

Honey Bees communicate through Round and Waggle Dance.

Karl Von Frisch received the Nobel prize in cracking the language code of honey bees (waggle dance).