''Apis cerana indica'', the Indian honey bee, is a subspecies of

Asiatic honey bee ''Apis cerana'', the eastern honey bee, Asiatic honey bee or Asian honey bee, is a species of honey bee native to South, Southeast and East Asia. This species is the sister species of ''Apis koschevnikovi'' and both are in the same subgenus as th ...

. It is one of the predominant bees found and domesticated in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

Nepal Nepal (; ne, नेपाल ), formerly the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal ( ne, सङ्घीय लोकतान्त्रिक गणतन्त्र नेपाल ), is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mai ...

Myanmar Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John C. Wells, Joh ...

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

and mainland Asia. Relatively non-aggressive and rarely exhibiting

swarming behavior Swarm behaviour, or swarming, is a collective behaviour exhibited by entities, particularly animals, of similar size which aggregate together, perhaps milling about the same spot or perhaps moving ''en masse'' or migrating in some direction. ...

, it is ideal for beekeeping. It is similar to the European honeybee (''Apis mellifera''), which tends to be slightly larger and can be easily distinguished. They usually build multiple combed nests in tree hollows and man-made structures. These bees can adapt to living in purpose-made hives and cavities. Their nesting habit means that they can potentially colonize temperate or mountain areas with prolonged winters or cold temperatures. Colonies contain only a few thousand workers, compared to the 50,000 typical of European honey bees. It is one of the important

pollinator A pollinator is an animal that moves pollen from the male anther of a flower to the female stigma of a flower. This helps to bring about fertilization of the ovules in the flower by the male gametes from the pollen grains. Insects are the maj ...

s for

coconut palm The coconut tree (''Cocos nucifera'') is a member of the palm tree family (Arecaceae) and the only living species of the genus ''Cocos''. The term "coconut" (or the archaic "cocoanut") can refer to the whole coconut palm, the seed, or the f ...

s; the other species are ''

Apis florea The dwarf honey bee (or red dwarf honey bee), ''Apis florea'', is one of two species of small, wild honey bees of southern and southeastern Asia. It has a much wider distribution than its sister species, ''Apis andreniformis''. First identified i ...

'', ''

Apis dorsata ''Apis dorsata'', the giant honey bee, सिङ्गुस in Nepali, is a honey bee of South and Southeast Asia, found mainly in forested areas such as the Terai of Nepal. They are typically around long. Nests are mainly built in exposed pla ...

'' and ''

Apis mellifera The western honey bee or European honey bee (''Apis mellifera'') is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bees worldwide. The genus name ''Apis'' is Latin for "bee", and ''mellifera'' is the Latin for "honey-bearing" or "honey carrying", ...

'' (the European bee). A recent paper describing the discovery of ''

Apis karinjodian ''Apis karinjodian'', the Indian black honey bee, is a species of genus '' Apis'' which was reported recently from India. The currently known distribution of ''A. karinjodian'' covers nearly the entire Central to Southern Western Ghats, where it ...

'', a species of cavity-nesting honeybee endemic to the Western Ghats region of India, also proposes that ''A. Indica'' is a distinct species from ''A. Cerana'', and that its homeland of Southern India may also be the center of origin for the European honeybee, ''Apis mellifera''.

References

* Benjamin P. Oldroyd and Siriwat Wongsiri. ''Asian Honey Bees (Biology, Conservation, and Human Interactions)''. 2006: Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts and London, England. * Tautz, J and M. Lindauer. 1997. "Honeybees establish specific nest sites on the comb for their waggle dances". ''Journal of Comparative Physiology'' 180:537-539. {{DEFAULTSORT:Apis Cerana Indica Cerana Indica