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Gallery: Zach's Bee Photos [(c) Zachary Huang], for Prints 
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Albums containing "dorsata" | |
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Giant Bees (A. dorsata) Giant honey bees (Apis dorsata, Apis laboriosa) occur only in Asia (China, India, Malasia, Nepal, Thailand). They nest in tall trees or under rocks with a single piece of comb. Bees can forage at night with strong moonlight. |
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Giant Bees Giant honey bees: Apis dorsata + laboriosa |
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Photos containing "dorsata" | |
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From Album: Asian Bees (A. cerana) A bee resting by biting on the anther of Pichira macrocarpa (Bombacaceae). Both dorsata and cerana forage on this plant by hovering and collect pollen. Hoving must be very tiring because you bees taking rests on leaves. This bee becomes smart and is taking a rest on the job. Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China. April 2002. |
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From Album: Giant Bees (A. dorsata) Two giant honey bees foraging on a flower of dillenia (Dillenia turbinata, Dilleniaceae). Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China. April 2002. KEYWORDS: Apis dorsata Matching Comments: i didn`t know that this apis dorsata has penetrated north towards china. i am working with the domestication and breeding of this honey bee in malaysia. Apis dorsata is endemic to Hainan and Xishuangbana, China and also in Thailand and Nepal. Zachary |
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From Album: Giant Bees (A. dorsata) A giant honey bee foraging on a megafruit pachira (Pachira macrocapa, Bombacaceae). Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China. April 2002. KEYWORDS: Apis dorsata |
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From Album: Giant Bees (A. dorsata) A giant honey bee foraging on a megafruit pachira (Pachira macrocapa, Bombacaceae). Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China. April 2002. KEYWORDS: Apis dorsata |
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From Album: Giant Bees (A. dorsata) A giant honey bee foraging on flowers of a Chinese holly tree (Ilex rotunda, Aquifoliaceae). Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China. April 2002. KEYWORDS: Apis dorsata |
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From Album: Giant Bees (A. dorsata) A giant honey bee foraging on a water lilly (Nymphaea lotus, Nymphaeaceae). I had to wait for about 20 min near this flower before a bee finally came. This is because I did not have a boat and most bees foraged near the middle of the lake. KEYWORDS: Apis dorsata |
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From Album: Giant Bees (A. dorsata) A giant honey bee foraging on flowers of a willow (Salix spp, Salicaceae). Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China. April 2002. KEYWORDS: Apis dorsata |
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From Album: Giant Bees (A. dorsata) A giant honey bee foraging on a flower of a common guava ( Psidium guava, Myrtaceae). Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China. April 2002. KEYWORDS: Apis dorsata |
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From Album: Giant Bees (A. dorsata) A giant honey bee foraging on flowers of cooking banana (Musa sapintum, Musaceae). I saw this bee foraging the first day, but after that I tried many days to get a closer picture but never saw dorsata again on this flower. Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China. April 2002. KEYWORDS: Apis dorsata |
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From Album: Giant Bees (A. dorsata) A giant honey bee foraging for water on a wet stone. This is the first time I saw dorsata foraging for water. A cerana worker was seeing foraging for water around the same area. I did not wante to use the flash in case the flash scares her away, so this picture is rather dark. |
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From Album: Giant Bees (A. dorsata) An Apis dorsata foraging on sun flower (Asteraceae). Hainan Island, China. Photo by Runzhi Zhang. |
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From Album: Asian Bees Apis cerana workers on pollen cells. Pollen cells are never sealed and are never filled near the top -- bees always leave about 20% space. Not sure why. Matching Comments: Some sites I've been to say that bees of Apis mellifera will fill pollen cells mostly then cover them with honey as a preservative. Maybe the Apis dorsata colonies do the same thing. |
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From Album: Giant Bees A newly emerged Apis dorsata on my thumb. Just like all honey bees, newly emerged bees do not sting and cannot fly. |
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From Album: Giant Bees A newly emerged Apis dorsata worker. Notice the small mite on the thorax -- this is the notorious 'lesser' mite (Tropilelaeps clarae), a large pest in China and other Asian countries on Apis mellifera. It jumped host from dorsata to mellifera there. |
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From Album: Giant Bees A drone of Apis dorsata emerging from his cell. Unlike in our bees, where the drone cell is much larger than worker's, in this bee there is no difference between the two! Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China. April 10, 2002. |
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From Album: Giant Bees A closeup of an old giant honey bee (Apis dorsata). While their body has similar diameters as mellifera (the average worker cell size is 5.4 mm across), they body is longer and wings has a smoky looking. Bands on abdomen gets darker as workers age. |
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From Album: Giant Bees dorsata-newbee |
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From Album: Giant Bees It seems that as the workers get larger, the difference in size between workers and drones gets smaller. Here you see the drone (top) is only 1 mm longer than the worker, in Apis dorsata (the giant honey bee). There is also no cell size differences between worker and drone cells! In the dwarf honey bees (A. florea and andreniformis), the difference between the two is the largest, both in terms of body size and cell size. |
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From Album: Giant Bees Change in appearances in Apis dorsata worker, from pupa to adult. |
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From Album: Dwarf Bees An Apis florea worker foraging on Mexican heather (cuphea hysopifolia, Lythraceae). This cultivated plant was popular in Yunnan and I have seen dorsata, florea, mellifera and cerana all foraging on the same plant! |
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From Album: Dwarf Bees An Apis florea worker foraging on a mimosa (Fabaceae), which was planted in a vegetable garden near Jinghong. Again, we found florea, cerana, and dorsata all foraging on this plant at the same time (around noon, April 2002). |
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From Album: Dwarf Bees Three dwarf honey bees (Apis florea) foraging on asters in a Thai flower market. After a bunch of bee scientisits discussing the nest should not be far, we found a nest on a tree above the roof not far away. I also saw Apis cerana foraging on cabbage flowers but did not get a good shot. We failed to see any dorsata foraging in the market, but did see stingless bees also. Chiangmai, Thailand. March 23, 2000. |
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From Album: Dwarf Bees Trick photo! This is a newly emerged dorsata worker on a florea nest. The dorsata was dipped in honey before introduced so workers were licking her, making her looking like a queen! The next day the worker was still in the nest, seemly being accepted by their much smaller cousins. KEYWORDS: Apis dorsata, Apis florea |
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From Album: Dwarf Bees The queen and her retinue of a florea colony. Note the bee with '77' on her, which I tagged the night before. Because workers form a few layers of curtains, one has to comb through them to find the queen. This one took us about 20 min to find and I just got lucky to have this clear shot, because two seconds later she disappeared again. Both florea and dorsata queens can fly without any preparation. European and Asian honey bee queens would need to be starved for 2-3 days before they can fly because they are too fat when laying eggs. Matching Comments: True for dorsata, but florea is not bad, you can get very close and photograph them . |
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From Album: Honey for Sale A lady selling honey harvested from Apis cerana. The price is about 5 yuan per half kilo ($0.60 per lb). The honey is usually robbed from unmanaged colonies. I have also seen honey and brood sold from dorsata colonies. Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, China. April 8, 2002. |
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From Album: Bugs at other places. dorsata-pollencells |
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From Album: Varroa mites A varroa mite (Varroa destructor) and a "lesser mite" (as is called in China), Tropilaelaps clarae, side by side. Tropilaelaps jumped host from A. dorsata to A. mellifera in Asia. Hopefully it will never make its way to North America because in southern China it is sometimes more serious than varroa. |
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From Album: Other pests Tiny ants attacking an Apis dorsata pupa. Yunnan, China. April 7, 2002. |
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Gallery: Zach's Bee Photos [(c) Zachary Huang], for Prints
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