Are bees a native species?

[user 6228]

Do you consider Bees are a native species of the UK?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Yes - we may now have imported strains as well as our natives, but whatever the daily mail says we still have native bees

 

[Finman]

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It was clearly said in honey bee history that native bees almost died in Britain and new bee strains were brought.

Is it so unclear?

Isle of Wight Disease
or acariasis, a chronic infection caused by the tick Acarapis Woodi Rennie of the family Tarsonemidae.

First discovered in 1904 in one of the apiaries on the Isle of Wight (England), the disease is known in Europe and in the European part of the Soviet Union. The agent of acariasis was determined in 1920 by the Scottish professor J. Rennie and his coworkers. Initially the tick is located in the first pair of thoracic tracheae, near the base of the wing blade, and also in the abdominal, thoracic, and sometimes the cephalic flight sacs. In the thoracic trachea the tick multiplies and gradually spreads via the tracheae throughout the whole animal. The ticks quickly die outside the organism. The infection of a healthy bee occurs through direct contact with a sick one. The ticks do not infect eggs, larvae, or pupae of bees. Drones, workers, and foraging bees bring the disease into the hive. Even one infected family threatens the entirehive. Almost all species of bees are susceptible to acariasis.

The disease is not evident for the first 2–4 years after infection. After this period, when 50 percent of the bees in the hive may be infected, symptoms of the disease are well developed, particularly on the first day of spring flights. Sick bees rapidly crawl from the hive but cannot fly. In many of the bees the wings are folded incorrectly. An acariasis-infected colony develops weakly, and its productivity is decreased.

For precise diagnosis of the disease, 30–50 bees displaying clear symptoms of acariasis are sent to the veterinary laboratory from each infected hive. A volatile preparation—for instance, ether sulfonate—that is lethal to ticks is used; the treatment must be repeated periodically. However, to eradicate the disease fully all sick bees as well as all suspected cases must be eliminated from the hive. Preventive measures include thorough examination of the bees during the first spring flights and removal of suspected and infected bees for forwarding to a veterinary laboratory. If even one hive is infected, the entire apiary should be considered suspect. Quarantine is established on all apiaries within a 5–km radius of the contaminated hive. Sale of bees from the quarantine zone is forbidden. Honey, honeycombs, and wax from infected bees is not dangerous to man and healthy bees. Therefore, the sale and shipment of these products is permitted.

 

[peteinwilts]

how far back would you want to go to consider a species native?

 

[Finman]

.

Lets look for example native wasp or Bombycillum terrestris in Finland?
Are they native to Finland?

Is Finland some range of nature?

If all wasp and Bumblebees die in Finland some years. next year a invasion of new individuals come from Russia. Are they native Russia or native Finland?

No, they are on they natural living area.

Do every country need its own native animals?

To be continued

 

[For want of a better word]

Do you consider Bees are a native species of the UK?


What do you mean by bees?

If you mean Apis mellifera mellifera... the honey bee that was extant in these islands after...the last ice age 10,000years ago... that would have been the native honey bee.

This will be hotly disputed by those who have more grey matter than I have been blessed with... with comments like " it was wiped out by disease"... and then replaced with another lot of Dutch and German Apis mellifera mellifera.

I believe that Apis mellifera mellifera. still thrives in some locations in the British
Mainland and Highlands and islands... only microsattelite DNA analysis and levels of parsimony will be conclusive.

 

[Little John]

What do you mean by bees?

What does he mean by 'native' ?
Are the English native to England ? No
Are the Celts ? Probably not.

But it all depends on how far back you go. The bee is generally thought to have evolved into the honeybee during the Miocene Period 23 to 5 million years ago, in Southern Asia. So maybe that's the only area in which you can truly say that the honeybee is 'native'.

I wonder if it really matters ?

LJ

 

[Finman]

.
Like our "native cow". Weight about 300 kg, when modern cows are about 1000 kg

Everybody says that it is spended, marvellous, bu no one want to keep them.
Special genes!

 

[Finman]

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Apis mellifera original areas in Europe

http://www.google.fi/imgres?imgurl=...JkeUcvzJIel4ASt0oCYAw&ved=0CEUQ9QEwAg&dur=135

 

[Finman]

.
Apis mellifera in Africa

1. Apis mellifera intermissa

This is a North African race of honeybee found north of the Sahara from Lybia to Morocco. The bee is reputedly very aggressive and swarms frequently. During droughts over 80% of colonies may die but owing to intensive swarming colony numbers increase when conditions improve.

2. Apis mellifera lamarckii

Egyptian bees found in North East Africa primarily in Egypt and the Sudan along the Nile Valley. Like intermissa they rear numerous queens with one colony recorded as rearing 368 queen cells and producing one small swarm with 30 queens!

3. Apis mellifera scutellata

Bees from the savannahs of central and equatorial East Africa and most of South Africa. This is a small bee with a short tongue which is highly aggressive and swarms frequently and is able to nest in a broad range of sites from cavities to open nests.

4. Apis mellifera adansonii

These bees are found in West Africa and are yellow in colour. They appear to be very similar to scutellata in many of their behaviours.

5. Apis mellifers monticola

These are the mountain bees and are found at high altitude in Tanzania and Kenya - 1,500 - 3,100 meters. These bees are a large, dark and gentle race with longer hairs than other African races of bees.

6. Apis mellifera capensis

These bees are found in South Africa and are unique among Apis mellifera in that they have a common occurance of female-producing laying workers.

 

[oliver90owner]

As some of the others, a silly question which can only be answered in the affirmative? Spread naturally over a long timescale is good enough for me. Bumbles, solitaries, honey - all the same really.

Not even going to bother with glacial limits or northernmost limits of forests; they are as native as us humans, even if they did not originate here (has anything much?).