Discovery of Apis florea colonies in northeastern Egypt M.A. Shebl Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agriculture, Suez Canal University, Ismailia 41522, Egypt. E-mail:
[email protected]
In this note, attention is focused on Apis species in particular the dwarf honeybees, while in previous studies we studied non-Apis bees (Shebl et al. 2013, 2014, 2015). Apis florea is widely distributed on the Asian continent, extending 7000 km from the east in Vietnam and China across Asia westwards to south of Oman (Hepburn et al. 2005). The species was accidentally introduced into Saudi Arabia and Sudan (Maa 1953; Hepburn et al. 2005). It is known only from Sudan in Africa and recently in Ethiopia (Bezabih et al. 2014) and has not been recorded previously in northern Africa. Apis florea was expected to invade Africa when it was first recorded on the eastern border of the Red Sea, around Aqaba, Jordan (Haddad et al. 2008). The Jordanian populations appear to have two origins with one linked to populations from Pakistan, Sudan, Oman then Saudi Arabia and Iran. The second one is linked to southern Indian and Sri Lankan populations (Haddad et al. 2009). It was predicted that the Jordanian and Sudanese populations would probably move into the Sinai Peninsula (Hepburn et al. 2011). Here I present the first records of A. florea in Suez, northeastern Egypt, closer to the African continent, River Nile and the Egyptian Delta. The colonies were found at a location on the road between Ismailia and Hurghada, close to Ataka Mountains in Suez (29°89’50”N 33°45’66”E), northeast Egypt. The area is called Adabia and is 11 km from Suez City and has a port and extensive shipping activities. Several colonies were discovered in the area, building their nests in the trees on the Suez Gulf such as Ficus nitida, Eucalyptus sp., Guava sp., Mangifera indica and palm trees. There are no agriculture crops in the area but some flowering plants of Ocimum basilicum, sunflower, citrus and Lantana camara occur. A number of field expeditions were conducted in 2016 to examine the colonies, and about 32 workers were collected around their nests using a sweep net. The workers were foraging on basil and citrus. Bees were killed in normal cyanide jars, pinned and stored in wooden boxes at the Insect Museum in the Department of Plant Protection, ISSN 1021-3589 [Print]; 2224-8854 [Online] DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4001/003.025.0248
Faculty of Agriculture, Suez Canal University. Labels recording the collecting time and date, area of collection and scientific name of the host plant were associated with each specimen. The specimens were identified morphologically and compared with materials collected from Saudi Arabia in 2015. The migrant dwarf honey bee A. florea has been recorded on the continent in Sudan, Ethiopia and Eritrea. The species is said to be moving at around 27 km annually in a southerly direction (Bezabih et al. 2014; Mogga 1994; El Shafie et al. 2002). Apis florea was expected to be found in the Sinai Peninsula but recently colonies were discovered in Suez (Fig. 1). The bees were recorded in Jordan in 2008 in Aqaba (Haddad et al. 2008) and recently in Suez, a movement to the west of around 45 km every year. Probably the dwarf honeybee was present in the Sinai Peninsula at the same time when it was recorded in Jordan, but due to limited field expeditions the species was not successfully collected. On the other hand, further investigation could clarify the movements of the bees from north to the south and from east towards west. The movement from east towards west is probably faster than from north to south. Based on this, it is expected that within the next five years A. florea will move towards Cairo and other parts of northwest Egypt, especially the Nile Delta. The dwarf honey bees prefer to build their nests in Ficus nitida trees followed by guava, mango, palm and camphor trees at a high elevation. The workers forage on different forage resources in the area but mostly forage on citrus, Ocimum basilicum, Helianthus sp. and Lantana camara (Fig. 1). Further studies on the impact of the invasion of the dwarf honey bees on the local honey bees should be carried out. In addition, determining the origin of the Egyptian population in relation to that of neighbouring populations in Jordan and Saudi Arabia needs to be done. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am grateful to all who helped me during the African Entomology 25(1): 248–249 (2017) ©Entomological Society of Southern Africa
Short communications
249
Fig. 1. A, Colony of Apis florea on a guava tree; B, old nest comb on a Ficus nitida tree; C, a worker of A. florea foraging on a citrus flower; D, a worker of A. florea foraging on Ocimum basilicum.
collection of the dwarf honey bees from Suez, Adabia, Gulf of Suez, Egypt. Special thanks and appreciation go to M. Khallaf and M. Ibrahim. My deep thanks also go to the chief editor and two anonymous referees for their comments. REFERENCES BEZABIH, G., ADGABA, N., HEPBURN, H.R. & PIRK, C.W.W. 2014. The territorial invasion of Apis florea in Africa. African Entomology 22(4): 888–890. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4001/003.022.0406 EL SHAFIE, H.A.F., MOGGA, J.B.B. & BASEDOW, T. 2002. Studies on the possible competition for pollen between the honey bee, Apis mellifera sudanensis, and the imported dwarf honey bee Apis florea (Hym., Apidae) in North-Khartoum (Sudan). Journal of Applied Entomology 126(10): 557–562. DOI: 10.1046/J.1439-0418.2002.00711.X HADDAD, N., DE MIRANDA, J.R. & BATAEHNA, A. 2008. Discovery of Apis florea in Aqaba Jordan. Journal of Apiculture Research 47(2): 173–174. DOI 10.3896/IBRA.1.47.2.17 HADDAD, N., FUCHS, S., HEPBURN, H.R. & RADLOFF,
S.E. 2009. Apis florea in Jordan: source of the founder population. Apidologie 40(4): 508–512. DOI: 10.1051/apido/2009011. HEPBURN, H.R. & HEPBURN, C. 2005. Bibliography of Apis florea. Apidologie 36(3): 377–378. DOI: 10.1051/apido:2005024 HEPBURN, H.R. & RADLOFF, S.E. 2011. Biogeography of the dwarf honeybees, Apis andreniformis and Apis florea. Apidologie 42(3): 293–300. DOI:10.?1007/?s13592-011-0024-x. MAA, T.C. 1953. An inquiry into the systematic of the tribe Apidini or honey bees (Hym.). Treubia 21(3): 525–640. SHEBL, M.A., KAMEL S. & MAHFOUZ, H. 2013. Bee fauna (Apoidea: Hymenoptera) of the Suez Canal Region, Egypt. Journal of Apiculture Science 57(1): 33–44. DOI: 10.2478/jas-2013-0004. SHEBL, M.A., PATINY, S. & MICHEZ, D. 2015. Supplementary note on the solitary bee fauna from the Suez Canal region of Egypt (Hymenoptera: Apoidea). Journal of Melittology 47: 1–5. DOI: 10.17161/jom.v0i47.4835. SHEBL, M.A. & FARAG, M. 2015. The bee diversity (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) visiting broad bean (Vicia faba L.) flowers in Egypt. Zoology in the Middle East 61(3): 256–263. DOI: 10.1080/09397140.2015.1069245. Accepted 14 June 2016
