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Hyménoptères with the black bee
The bee in the animal world
This page specifies the place occupied by the bee in the whole of the animal world. The zoologists recognize the existence of more than 20000 species of bees: who are they, how live and which are the characters which make it possible to differentiate them from the other insects?
The expansion of the species is such on the ground that the biologists developed an effective system of classification; without that, not average to see there clearly, even among the insects which represent alone nearly a million species; several new species besides are discovered and described each year!
An attentive observation makes it possible to classify the bees in the junction of the arthropods, at the sides of Arachnida (spiders) or shellfish: all these animals are characterized, indeed, by teguments made up of chitin, a formed body of articulated segments, made up eyes and other characters still.
Within the group of the arthropods, the bees present a series of particular natures, which results in gathering them in a homogeneous unit, the class of the insects: the bees have, indeed, six legs, two pairs of wings and a body divided into three distinct parts (head, thorax and abdomen). The class of the insects includes/understands 32 orders, of which that of the hyménoptères, that of the lépidoptères (butterflies) or that of dipterous (flies).
The bees belong to the order of the hyménoptères and the characteristics present some of course:
- complete metamorphosis, i.e. the development passes by the stages egg, larva, nymph and finally imago,
- wings membranous and coupled by hooks,
- oral parts of crusher-bootlicker type,
- parthenogenesis presents at many species.
Among the hyménoptères, the bees are characterized by the presence from a "size from wasp" (separate thorax of the abdomen by a narrow contracting) and from a pivot in the females; they form the group of the aculeate apocrites. This group includes/understands several super-families, of which those of Formicoidea (ants), Vespoidea (wasps) and of course of Apoidea (bees).
The figure below will help you to locate the bee in the world of the insects, more especially in the order of the hyménoptères (extracted the book "powerful being in bee-keeping").
The bees - or apoïdes - form an extremely diversified group of hyménoptères. The term "bee" can just as easily indicate the bee of the hives, or domestic bee, that one of the 20000 other species of bees if one takes this term in the broad sense which the zoologists give him.
All the bees have a mode in common exclusively vegetarian, containing honey or of nectar and pollen. The females have besides a body of harvest of pollen called brushes and localised on the level of the posterior legs or under the abdomen. Several social species, which live in company, and even in permanent companies in some rare cases are met there. But the majority of the species do not form advanced companies or are straightforwardly solitary. One observes in fact a great variation of the degree of socialization.
The bees are divided into more homogeneous groups, the families. Among those, the family of Apidae gathers the species of which the degree of socialization is the most raised, but also some species solitary; they are insects with long language, compared to other families of not very advanced solitary species and with short language. Morphological characters also make it possible to distinguish the various families.
Within the family of Apidae, several kinds are, and in particular the bumblebees, which one should not confuse with the false-bumblebees, males of the domestic bee; the bees of the Apis kind live in permanent colonies and reproduce by swarming.
The Apis kind is made traditionally of four species only, namely Apis will mellifera, Apis dorsata, Apis florea and Apis cerana, but other species today are recognized.
Apis florea is in India, Malaysia, Java and Borneo. It is the smallest bee. One meets it only in plain, below 500 meters. The nest is composed of only one ray. - Apis dorsata is widespread on a broad territory of South-Eastern Asia (India, South of China, the Philippines, Archipel Indonésien). The nest is also made of only one ray.
- Apis cerana, nearest to the European bee. One meets it in Southern Asia and Eastern, everywhere where the bees can settle. One easily raises it in hives.
- Apis will mellifera, the only indigenous species in Europe and Africa; one also finds it in other regions where it was introduced (America, Australia).
Surface of distribution of the species of the Apis kind,
according to Ruttner (extracted the book "powerful being in
bee-keeping")
Concept of race
The bee mellifère occupies a very broad surface of distribution where it meets very diversified ecological conditions. These variable conditions are reflected on the various local populations and thus involve a geographical variation of the bee whose finality lies in adaptation the best possible one to the living conditions. This variation, although obvious on the morphological level, is not sufficient to ensure the sexual insulation of the various populations and thus the formation of a new species. On the other hand, these differences contribute to the appearance of various subspecies or geographical races. It is with these subspecies that the bee-keepers refer when they speak about race. In bee-keeping, the concept of race thus does not have the same significance as in breeding, for example for the dogs (spaniel, poodle...), the cows (magpie-black, holstein...), etc.
The definition of a subspecies rests, as one has just seen it, on differences in morphological order; they should be supplemented by other characteristics, like ecological and ethologic adaptations particular, as well as a precise geographical distribution.
A species can thus made of a whole of subspecies interfécondes; it is the case of the bee mellifère for which more than 20 geographical races were recognized. The four principal races of Western Europe are the black bee (Apis will mellifera will mellifera), the bee carniolienne (A. Mr. carnica), the Italian bee (A. Mr. ligustica) and the Caucasian bee (A. Mr. caucasica). These various subspecies can be recognized by the observation of their morphological characteristics, such as for example, the length of the language, the color of the abdomen, the veins of the wings, etc (see figure below).
The black bee
Nomenclature
Each alive, animal being or plants, must be able to be indicated without ambiguity. For this reason, the scientists laid down international rules of nomenclature and they use a Latin binomial (binomial nomenclature) to indicate each species. For the bee, one uses the Apis binomial will mellifera L. (1758). Apis is the generic name (of kind) and will mellifera is the specific epithet (of species) of the bee. It was described in 1758 by Linné (L).
In the case of the bee, one often adds a third name to indicate the subspecies, for example Apis will mellifera will mellifera for the black bee of Western Europe. Another denomination is often used, Apis mellifica mellifica.
Description
This bee has a rather squat pace and a color of the body very dark, almost black. It is also characterized by a large body with a bulky abdomen covered with long hairs. The rather narrow tomentum reinforces are characteristic black aspect. Other characteristics make it possible to distinguish the black bee from the other races. The study of morphology makes it possible to recognize the races and their hybrids.
Geographical distribution
With the origin, the black bee populates all France, British Isles as far as Scotland and in Ireland, the Central Europe in the north of the Alps; it occupies also the plains of the north of Poland, is of Russia to the Ural, as well as the south of Sweden and Norway. Currently, this surface extended towards north thanks to the bee-keeping.
Chart of distribution of the black bee, Apis will mellifera will mellifera
Variability
With through such a vast surface of distribution, the black bee meets extremely various ecological conditions; it is conceived easily that the climate and the flora, two essential aspects of the environment of the bee, are very different when one passes from the Mediterranean basin to Scandinavia or Russia.
Under the effect of the natural selection, the black bee adapted to these varied ecological conditions, from where the appearance of a very important biological diversity. This diversity is thus the result of a long evolution, irreplaceable work completed by nature.
On the morphological level, the variation between the local populations remains very weak and the Scandinavian bee resembles to mistake there with the bee of Provence. Only thorough statistical analyses make it possible to highlight tiny differences, sometimes between distant populations of less than 10 km. On the other hand, one highlighted well other differences in physiology, ecology or the behavior. More recently, molecular biology made it possible to progress in the knowledge of the local populations.
Each local population thus joins together a whole of adaptations completely specific to its environment. From the point of view of the breeding, these populations are remarkable by their rusticity, which justifies in the bee of measurements of conservation on the level of the ecotypes. From the apiarian point of view, it and rusticity appear well through annual biological cycle of a colony. To illustrate, let us take the example of the harvest of pollen. The figure below (extracted "to be powerful in bee-keeping") present the rate/rhythm of harvest of pollen by a colony of bees of the Between-Sambre-and-Meuse. One observes a particular cycle which corresponds to the needs for the colony.
The comparison with other local populations illustrates an aspect of biological variability clearly. The time (in weeks) necessary to a colony of bees respectively to collect 50 % and 90 % of its annual total harvest of pollen is used like comparison criterion (table below).
| AREA | 50 % | 90 % |
|---|---|---|
| Belgian Between-Sambre-and-Meuse | 8 | 15 |
| Paris area | 9 | 18 |
| Brittany | 13 | 22 |
| Provence | 11 | 25 |
| Moors of Gascogne | 18 | 26 |
Table - Time (in weeks) necessary to a colony of bees respectively to collect 50 % and 90 % of its annual total harvest (according to GUERRIAT, LOUVEAUX and MESQUIDA)
Another aspect of the biological cycle relates to the quantity of couvain. Within the black race, one meets many upgrading capabilities during the year. Each one of them constitutes an answer adapted to a particular environment. Well of other examples would allow to illustrate the adaptation and diversity in the black bee.
All these characteristics of adaptation to the medium are hereditary and thus form part of the genetic inheritance of the race; they form integral part of black bee. Within the black bee, Louveaux was delivered in France to experiments of delocalization of colonies belonging to an ecotype given in another area. The results state clearly that each population is adapted to a precise environment.