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Bees are climate migrants too
“Colony of invasive red dwarf honeybee found for first time in Europe”, read a headline in The Guardian recently. A colony of Apis florea, a honey bee native to Asia, had been found on the island of Malta where it now competed for nectar and pollen with the resident Apis mellifera, the European honey bees – the bees we are all familiar with. The small, just 2.000 bees-strong A. florea colony was destroyed. It is possible that some of the bees had started another colony on Malta but so far none has been found. According to the scientists, food competition is not the only problem the small bees might create, they could also carry diseases that might eventually pose a threat to the European honeybee.
Honeybees and habitat
The A. florea on Malta likely arrived as stowaways on a cargo vessel, but the species can be found in many other countries outside of Asia, the bees are well established in Oman and have been spotted across North Africa including Senegal on the west African coast.
Like all species, plant, animal or insect, bees migrate to wherever they find a habitat in which they can thrive. For A. florea that’s a dry, semi desert landscape. Unlike the European honey bee, which beekeepers can keep in hives, this dwarf species builds their combs in the open, hidden in scrub and preferably thorny bushes. Not much green growth can be found in their preferred landscape, the grass is mostly dry and brittle, the leaves of most bushes are leathery and dusty with tiny flowers – a perfect blossom size for A. florea. Collectors of A. florea honey cut out only the part of the comb that contains honey, which the bees then can rebuild.
Climate change opportunities
Warming temperatures and prolonged droughts are just two of the consequences of the climate crisis. Plants are migrating north – literally – olive trees and citrus varieties now thrive in English gardens. Desert plants may soon flourish in countries around the Mediterranean, A. florea may well be needed for their pollinating services.
South Asia has not one but four other honeybee species. There are the relatively rare Apis laroriosa and the much more common Apis dorsata. They are the giants of the honeybee world and about the size of a hornet. They, too, build single, but much larger combs in the open, on rock faces or on the branches of tall trees. When their nests are threatened they are aggressive and vicious, being stung multiple times can be dangerous. It’s relatively easy to spot them from below because a comb can measure 1.5 meter across. It takes brave honey collectors to climb such rock face or a tree, usually with little or no protection, and cut out the honey containing comb-section.
The preferred habitat of A. dorsata are jungles where they pollinate flowering trees, many of which have been valued in India for their medicinal properties for centuries. But forested areas are in decline and their combs can now be spotted in towns and cities, usually on the underside of water towers, which keep the comb cool and shaded.
Bee colonialism
The closest Asian relative to the European honey bee is Apis cerana, bigger than the dwarf bees but smaller than their European relatives. When A. mellifera was brought to India in the late 1990s, they did a great job pollinating (among other cash crops) the flowers of coffee plants. But as more beekeepers started keeping European bees, A. cerana numbers fell. The detrimental impact this has had on small scale agriculture in India is only now becoming apparent. ‘Under The Mango Tree’ (UTMT) is an Indian NGO that trains beekeepers in particularly disadvantaged tribal communities. A. cerana can be kept in small, simple boxes which can be easily moved and placed next to a field where their pollinator services are needed. (The smaller the bee, the shorter is their flight radius, A. cerana covers a few hundred meters, A. mellifera several kilometers.) A study conducted by UTMT showed that yield for all crops increased dramatically when A. cerana boxes were placed nearby – the chili harvest was up by a whopping 400%. To provide feed for the bees, farmers plant a third crop such as mustard in winter, which of course increases the farm income, too. Many of the beekeepers are women and honey sales provide a small income. But it’s not just the money that boosts their confidence and increases their independence – being a skilled beekeeper and teaching others is the source for a real sense of achievement and pride.
Neither A. dorsata nor A. cerana are likely to migrate to Europe soon. But there sure is more to the world of honeybees than the ones we see around parks and gardens here.
Photo copyright: @M.Kunz
Marianne Landzettel is a journalist writing and blogging about food, farming and agricultural policies in the UK, the US, continental Europe and South Asia. She worked for the BBC World Service and German Public Radio for close to 30 years. Follow her on X at @M_Landzettel and m.landzettel on Instagram
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