The red dwarf honey bee (Apis florea F.) faces the threat of extirpation in Northwest India

R. C. Sihag

doi:10.15421/2021_62

Abstract

Pollination is one of the essential ecosystem services. In recent years, a severe global pollinator decline has been the prime concern of pollination scientists and agriculturalists. The red dwarf honey bee (Apis florea F.) is an important pollinator of the semi-arid to tropical environments of several parts of Asia and Africa. The actual status of the colony numbers and foraging populations of this honey bee are not known. In this article, I examined the status of these parameters of this honey bee in Northwest India. I conducted monthly surveys and counted the total number of colonies of the red dwarf honey bee present at the main campus of CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar (India) (in about 9 km2) from 1984 to 2011 at an interval of three years. I also counted the number of foraging honey bees on two crops, viz. a winter-flowering crop, Raya (Brassica juncea Czern and Coss), and a summer-flowering crop, Carrot (Daucus carota L). In 27 years, the number of colonies of this honey bee in the study area declined from 221.5�14.1 in 1984 to 53.4�6.6 in 2011. The foraging populations of this honey bee too declined from 31.2�0.3 bees/m2 to 9.2�0.2 bees/m2 on Carrot and from 25�0.3 bees/m2 to 3.3�0.2 bees/ m2 on Raya. This honey bee exhibited a significant decline in its colony number every 6 years. Foraging bees declined significantly every three years. The colony and forager surveys revealed that the red dwarf honey bee (Apis florea F.) seemed to face the threat of extirpation (local extinction) in Northwest India. This decline in the colony numbers and the foraging populations seemed to have caused a pollination crisis in this region. The decline in the colony numbers and the foraging populations seemed to be caused by the poisoning of foraging bees due to the excessive and indiscriminate use of insecticides on the Cotton and/or Rice crops that come in blooms during the floral dearth period of this region. Considered the importance of this honey bee in the pollination of crops, we suggested that this honey bee must be vigorously protected and conserved.

Highlights

Many ecosystem services essential for human welfare are under the threat of disruption; pollination is one such vulnerable service (Klein et al 2006)
Pollinator declines have been reported to result in loss of pollination services which have significant negative ecological and economic impacts that could significantly affect the maintenance of wild plant diversity, more comprehensive ecosystem stability, crop production, food security, and human welfare (Allen-Wardell et al, 1998; Kremen and Ricketts, 2000; Richards, 2001; Kremen et al, 2002; Westerkamp and Gottsberger, 2002; Steffan-Dewenter et al, 2005; Klein et al, 2007)
The pattern of colony numbers of the red dwarf honey bee The red dwarf honey bee colonies showed a steep decline in their numbers in this region from 1984 to 2011 (Fig. 5)

Summary

Introduction

Many ecosystem services essential for human welfare are under the threat of disruption; pollination is one such vulnerable service (Klein et al 2006). In northwest India, Apis cerana and Apis indica are absent, and Apis mellifera was introduced only in the early 1980s.The crop growers have to rely on two wild honey bee species (viz. Apis dorsata and Apis florea) to pollinate their crops This region‘s recent reports reveal that the colonies of the giant honey bee (Apis dorsata) are declining in this region (Sihag, 2014). The whole region has witnessed the introduction of pesticides usage for crop protection (Alagh, 1988; Subhash et al, 2017; Lakshmi Priya, 2017) This seemed to have led to a complete change in this region‘s ecology and environment, adversely affecting non-target organisms‘ lives (Plumer, 2014; Karen, 2018); the red dwarf honey bee (Apis florea) should be no exception. I report here a highly dire state of colony number of this honey bee which seems to head towards extirpation

Methods

Results

Conclusion