Ratna Thapa

Extended survival of the parasitic honey bee mite Tropilaelaps clareae on adult workers of Apis mellifera and Apis dorsata

SUMMARYThe survival of adult female Tropilaelaps clareae of unknown age on caged adult workers of Apis mellifera was investigated in ambient conditions during the rainy season in northern Thailand and in an incubator maintained at 35°C and 60% RH. Under both conditions, a small percentage of T. clareae survived for three days. A similar experiment using adult T. clareae on caged adult workers of Apis dorsata produced similar results: a small percentage of mites survived for three days. The observed survival of T. clareae, whether on A. mellifera or A. dorsata, is about one day longer than previously reported. It is now clear that the highly pestiferous T. clareae could easily survive even the longest of international airline flights.

Giant Honeybees Use Wax Specks To Recognize Old Nest Sites

Ratna Thapa is a lecturer at the School of Science, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, Thailand and Professor Siriwat Wongsiri currently holds the Baqshan Chair of Bee Research at the Faculty of Food Science and Agriculture, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Mitochondrial DNA variations in Korean Apis cerana (Hymenoptera: Apidae) and development of another potential marker

The geographic relationships and biogeography of Apis cerana have been studied extensively, but Korean populations have not been investigated thoroughly. We sequenced the non-coding region between the tRNALeu and COII mitochondrial (mt) genes (herein named NC2) of Korean samples, along with the samples from seven Asian localities (China, Vietnam, and Thailand). Four undiscovered haplotypes were found in Korea and China, respectively. A phylogenetic analysis confirmed that Korean A. cerana belonged to the Mainland Asian group. Dominance of Japan1 haplotype in Mainland Asia including Korea suggests extensive gene flow and a common genetic origin. A newly developed non-coding region between the tRNAMet and tRNAGln mt genes (named NC1) provided nine haplotypes with twice the number of variable positions compared to those in NC2. A NC1-based phylogenetic analysis revealed the presence of two phylogenetic groups in Apis cerana from Korea suggesting two different sources.

Bee-Birds: Ravagers of Beekeepers, but Saver of Farmers

Wild bee eater birds have been offered food and water as a traditional religious custom in many communities in Asia. Just as the name reveals, bee-eaters predominantly eat huge number of insect, pests and other invertebrates e.g. rice pests, freshwater crabs and snails. All insectivorous birds can eat harmful insects to keep pest populations under control in agricultural ecosystems. Bee-eaters consume a large number of bees causing direct impact on honey production. They consume very few bees and most bee colonies can suffer the occasional loss of a worker bee to a bird. If the bird happens to get a virgin queen on a mating flight the loss is more serious but only beekeepers who are queen breeders need to be concerned. Moving bee colonies is the usual solution in areas where bird pests are considered a problem. There is a need to study in detail the food and feeding behaviour, reproduction, roosting, population dynamics and damage of all important species. Management questions can be answered only if one has a sound knowledge on these ecological aspects.

Fight Or Flee

Ratna Thapa of the School of Science, Mae Fah Luang University, Chiang Rai, Thailand with Yong-Soo Choi and Myeong-Lyeol Lee of Sericulture and Agriculture Division, Department of Agricultural Biology, National Academy of Agriculture Science, Suwon, Republic of Korea look at the way bees deal with one of natures dilemmas.

Reproductive Performance of Laying Worker of Apis cerana in Queenless Colonies

The Asian cavity-nesting honey bee, Apis cerana, the workers ovaries is very active in queenless colonies. We investigated the duration of egg laying by laying workers, egg-laying behavior, determine egg load in ovaries, estimate oviposition rate nad number of eggs per cell in three queenless colonies of Korean A. cerana. The number of eggs laid by laying workers at different times on the manipulated comb was checked and counted. We observed that the laying workers spent, on average, 109.2 seconds per cell. During oviposition, the laying workers showed two types of behaviors, viz; a still phase, and a recovery phase. On average, 4.0 of worker eggs per cell per week was recorded. The workers laid three different shapes of eggs in a cell. The laying workers ovaries retained 1 to 4 mature eggs. This suggests that a laying worker may lay from one to four eggs per oviposition. We did not observe false-queen in Korean A. cerana in three queenless colonies. In this study, we reported for the first time that one worker cell of A. cerana retains up to 33 eggs in queenless condition. The queenless colonies build the comb and lay eggs in new comb, and also reared the new queen without successful development of the queen larva from laying worker eggs.