Shy, secretive world of bees

Hindustan Times

21-06-2025

Incredible India houses a dazzling richness of bee diversity. Of the 20,925 species recognised globally, India hosts 755. Further, of the nine traditional honey bee species of the world, India is the home to four of them. Many of the world's prominent land masses such as North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa and Australia have only one honey bee species, the Western honey bee (Apis mellifera). These hard-working insects which play a foundational role in pollination and some yield nature's incredible amrit or nectar in the guise of honey. Despite India fortuitously sporting such an array of bees, these insects are under increasing threat from varied quarters. Apis cerena in a wall and (right) hollow in tree roots, PU. (Arun Bansal)
The diversity of bee existence in India was underscored by observations by the naturalist, Arun Bansal, of these insects 'unusually' pouring out of dark hollows in the roots of a tree at the Panjab University's (PU) Dr PN Mehra Botanical Gardens and from a secretive hole in a reddish wall at the Teachers' Flats. The entrance to the cavity nests was small and thus easier guarded against predators such as ants, hornets, wasps, birds and humans. There were multiple hives within. These were not the typical, huge hives one associates hanging in the open from trees, underneath the eaves of buildings and ceilings of tall water tanks etc, and which are formed by the famous Rock honey bee (Apis dorsata). These big Rock bees are the ones infamous for delivering dreaded stings when disturbed.
On the other hand, the honey bees coming out of the PU tree and wall cavity were smaller than the Rock bees. I sought their identification from professor Pardeep Chhuneja, an award-winning apiculture scientist and former head, department of entomology, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana. 'It is the native species, Apis cerena cerena (Asian honey bee), in the tree roots and wall of PU. Along with the Apis mellifera (Western honey bee), which is an imported bee for apiculture, these two species are cavity-dwelling ones. These two species are the ones used for beekeeping in India,' Chhuneja told this writer.
Scientific research has established that the Apis cerena can forage as far as 1.5-2.5 km from the hive. They gather nectar and pollen from the flowers. Nectar is turned into honey by these 'flying Lilliputians of the natural world' and is stored to provide energy in the guise of carbohydrates for adults and larvae of the bee colony. Honey-making is not an enterprise that nature has predestined for human lip-smacking but is actually for the benefit of the bees themselves. Some forest department employees criminally smoke out, destroy and displace hives of wild Rock honey bees under their protection in wildlife sanctuaries. They steal honey from the mouths of the hungry little ones to oblige senior officers/VIPs by delivering honey jars to official residences.
Bees are remarkable, cooperative creatures but we know little of them beyond...delicious honey...and more vaguely as pollinators. Honey bees are able to maintain temperatures with tolerable limits even when the outside temperatures range from freezing point to searing heat. This task is carried out by the fanning bees which stand at the 'doorway to their hive and produce a current of air by beating their wings, which serves to air condition the hive'.
The Apis cerena (AC) resorts to various colony defensive behaviours to ward off predators, such as abdomen shaking, hissing (through wing vibrations) and group defence (including grasping, pulling, and biting, killing by overheating). 'Heat balling is a unique defence of AC to kill predatory hornets. Several hundred bees surround the hornet in a tight ball and vibrate their thoracic muscles to produce heat. The AC workers are able to raise the temperature inside the ball to an average of 46°C for approximately 20 minutes. This is high enough to kill the hornet inside, but not high enough to kill the bees, who can tolerate temperatures up to 48°C and 50°C,' states a research paper, Comparative Study of Apis cerena and Apis mellifera, by DR Katuwal, Alina Pokhrel and Dipak Khanal.
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