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Gallery: Zach's Bee Photos [(c) Zachary Huang], for Prints 
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Albums containing "florea" | |
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Dwarf Bees Dwarf honey bees include Apis florea and Apis andreniformis. Both are about 1/4 of European honey bees and nest in the open with a single comb (about 1-1.5 ft long). Florea has the more reddish color while andreniformis is totally black in the abdomen when old. The two are so similar that they were considered to be one species until a few years ago. |
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Dwarf Bees Dwarf honey bees: Apis florea + andreniformis |
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Photos containing "florea" | |
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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: 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 An Apis florea worker foraging on a discarded water melon. Yunnan, 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: Dwarf Bees A closeup of workers on a florea nest. Workers form curtains (shingled together) similar to the giant honey bees. |
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From Album: Dwarf Bees A mature florea nest, about 1 ft across. Honey is stored in a rather cylinderic column near the top. Worker brood is solid in the center, separated by a few rows of pollen cells from the much larger drone cells on the outer rim. Notice there are two queen cells hanging down. |
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From Album: Dwarf Bees A relatively new nest of florea. Some people harvested this colony's old comb about 2 weeks ago, and found their new nest again, this time only about 6 inchs across. Brood in the center are only just beginning to be sealed. |
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From Album: Dwarf Bees A closeup of a florea comb. A few rows of pollen are between the brood area and honey below. The honey storage is probably temporary -- the large cells are drone cells and will be used for rearing drones. |
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From Album: Dwarf Bees A florea worker trying to sting my finger. The pain is much less compared to the European bees. Most of the time they have trouble getting through my thick skin. |
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From Album: Dwarf Bees An Apis andreniformis worker on my fingers. Notice she is totally black, not reddish as Apis florea. |
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From Album: Dwarf Bees I tagged a florea worker with a numbered tag and introduced her back to the nest. I was trying to see if the tags would stay since the bees are so small and the tags were designed for mellifera queens. I also wanted to see bees would accept their tagged sisters since they seem to be very sensitive to smell. A newly tagged worker here gets a lot of attention because of the smell of resin used to glue the tag. Matching Comments: The resin you used to tag this Apis florea, was it the bee resin, propolis? Did the other bees reject her? |
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From Album: Dwarf Bees A closeup of florea workers on the top flat surface. This is also called the "dance floor" because florea workers dance on a flat surface, they do not use gravity as a reference as Apis mellifera and cerana, which both live side dark cavities. |
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Gallery: Zach's Bee Photos [(c) Zachary Huang], for Prints
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