Cyrenaican bees: nocturnal foraging?

[Paulypaul]

Stumbled across this short video of a BBC news article from 1965.

"Miss Olive Brittan, a British woman who looked after the royal Cyrenaican bees of the King of Libya."

Amongst other things, she claimed her bees forage at night.

Googling, I can't see any mention of Cyrenaican bees. Might it be known by another name?

 

[Murox]

Cyrenaica is a province, the bees are probably just a local subtype. A bit like The Tunisian honeybee (Apis mellifera intermissa) is a breed local to northern Africa, also called the Tellian or Punic honeybee, but I don't know enough about it really.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Take your pick
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apis_mellifera_subspecies

Libya is purportedly home of a desert honey bee too

 

[Paulypaul]

Take your pick
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apis_mellifera_subspecies

Libya is purportedly home of a desert honey bee too

Interesting. I was wonder how specialised the Jordanian bee is. Particularly regards night foraging.

I found this paper about the Jordanian honey bee: East Mediterranean and Middle Eastern mitochondrial lineage. Nothing about nighttime foraging.
https://www.researchgate.net/public...ptera_Apidae_usingamplified_mitochondrial_DNA

According to the internet, only the giant Indian carpenter bee is nocturnal.

 

[oxnatbees]

An African beekeeper told me one species there forages by moonlight to reduce predation by wasps.

I've heard one or two reports even in the UK, when the moon is near full. Very rare.