Family: Apidae
Subfamily: Apinae
Tribe: Apini Latreille, 1802
Genus: Apis Linnaeus, 1758
Subgenus: Micrapis Ashmead, 1904
Species: Apis andreniformis, Apis florea
Common name: dwarf honey bees
Honey bees in the subgenus Micrapis are the smallest in size (body length of 10 mm or less and forewing length of 7 mm or less) and are considered the most primitive honey bees, in part for their nesting behavior (nest in the open formed by horizontal comb), and for their dance which is done on a horizontal comb.
to the margin of the compound eye.
(digit present).Honey bees in the subgenus Micrapis can be confused with honey bees in other subgenera, but they can be easily separated by their small size and by their small nests composed of horizontal combs. They may be also be confused with some genera of stingless bees (tribe Meliponini), but they can be differentiated from these by the presence of a sting and a rastellumrastellum:
a row of spurs that extends along the inner margin of the hind tibia
in the workers.
As with all species of honey bees, bees in the subgenus Micrapis are generalists and visit a broad range of plants for food.
Bees in the subgenus Micrapis build their nests exposed on tree branches or other structures. Their nests are also characteristic in their small size and horizontal combs (as opposed to the vertical combs built by all other honey bees).
There are two species in this subgenus: Apis andreniformis and Apis florea. The two species have been considered different species based on their morphology (Ruttner 1975Ruttner 1975:
Ruttner, F. 1975. A metatarsal clasping structure in the Apis drone, Entomology Germany 2: 22ndash;29., Kuang and Li 1985Kuang and Li 1985:
Kuang, B.Y. and Y.C. Li. 1985. The genus Apis in China. Chinese Beekeeping 76: 7ndash;9 (in Chinese)., Wu and Kuang 1986Wu and Kuang 1986:
Wu, Y.R. and B. Kuang. 1986. A study of the genus Micrapis (Apidae). Zoological Research 7: 99ndash;102 (in Chinese)., 1987; Ruttner 1988Ruttner 1988:
Ruttner, F. 1988. Biogeography and taxonomy of honeybees. Springer, Berlin- New York. 284 pp., Wongsiri et al. 1990Wongsiri et al. 1990:
Wongsiri, S., K. Limbipichai, P. Tangkanasing, M. Mardan, T. Rinderer, H.A. Sylvester, G. Koeniger, and G.W. Otis. 1990. Evidence of reproductive isolation confirms that Apis andreniformis (Smith, 1858) is a separate species from sympatric Apis florea (Fabricius, 1787). Apidologie 21: 47ndash;52., Chen 1993), nest structure (Dung et al. 1996Dung et al. 1996:
Dung P.X., P.H. Thai, and L.Q. Trung. 1996. Some comparative characteristics between Apis florea and Apis andreniformis in Minh Hai Province, Proceedings of the 3rd Asian Apiculture Association, Hanoi. pg. 62., Rinderer et al. 1996Rinderer et al. 1996:
Rinderer, T.E., S. Wongsiri, B.Y. Kuang, J.S. Liu, B.P. Oldroyd, H.A. Sylvester, and L.I. De Guzman. 1996. Comparative nest architecture of the dwarf honey bees. Journal of Apicultural Research 35: 19ndash;26.), morphometrymorphometry:
from the Greek: "morph," meaning "shape," and "metron," meaning "measurement." Different schools of morphometrics are characterized by what aspects of biological "form" they are concerned with, what they choose to measure, and what kinds of biostatistical questions they ask of the measurements once they are made; such as configurations of landmarks from whole organs or organisms analyzed by appropriately invariant biometric methods (covariances of taxon, size, etc.) and in order to answer biological questions. Another sort of morphometrics studies tissue sections, measures the densities of points and curves, and uses these patterns to answer questions about the random processes that may be controlling the placement of cellular structures. A third, the method of "allometry," measures sizes of separate organs and asks questions about their correlations with each other and with measures of total size. There are many others.</p
(Rinderer et al. 1995Rinderer et al. 1995:
Rinderer, T.E., B.P. Oldroyd, S. Wongsiri, H.A. Sylvester, L.I. De Guzman, J.A. Stelzer, and R.M. Riggio. 1995. A morphological comparison of the dwarf honey bees of south-eastern Thailand and Palawan, Philippines. Apidologie 26: 387ndash;394.), allozyme polymorphism (Nunamaker et al. 1984Nunamaker et al. 1984:
Nunamaker, R.A., W.T. Wilson, and R. Ahmad. 1984. Malate dehydrogenase and non-specific esterase isoenzymes of Apis florea , A. dorsata , and A. cerana as detected by isoelectric focusing. Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society 57: 591ndash;595., Li et al. 1986Li et al. 1986:
Li, S., Y.P. Meng, J.T. Chang, J.H. Li, S.Y. He, and B.Y. Kuang. 1986. A comparative study of esterase isozymes in 6 species of Apis and 9 genera of Apoidea. Journal of Apicultural Research 25: 129ndash;133., Gan et al., 1991), mtDNA sequence divergences (Smith 1991Smith 1991:
Smith, D.R. 1991. Mitochondrial DNA and honey bee biogeography, in: Smith D.R. (Ed.), Diversity in the genus Apis , Westview Press, Boulder, Co. pp. 131ndash;176., Nanork et al. 2001Nanork et al. 2001:
Nanork, P., S. Deowanish, and S. Wongsiri. 2001. Mitochondrial DNA variability of dwarf honey bee [ Apis florea Fabricius (1787)] in Thailand by using PCR-RFLP technique. Proceedings of the 7th International Conference in Tropical Apiculture. Climates, Chiang Mai. Pp. 341ndash;345.), and by differences in the timing of mating flights (Rinderer et al. 1993Rinderer et al. 1993:
Rinderer, T.E., B.P. Oldroyd, S. Wongsiri, H.A. Sylvester, L.I. De Guzman, S. Potichot, W.S. Sheppard, and S.L. Buchmann. 1993. Time of drone flight in four honey bee species in southeastern Thailand. Journal of Apicultural Research 32: 27ndash;33.).
Out of the two species in the subgenus, Apis florea is the most invasive, and since the 1980s has invaded the African continent (Bezabih et al. 2014Bezabih et al. 2014:
Bezabih G., N. Adgaba, H.R. Hepburn, and C.W.W. Pirk. 2014. The territorial invasion of Apis florea in Africa. African Entomology 22 (4): 888ndash;890.) and expanded into the Arabian Peninsula and the Middle East (Hepburn et al. 2005Hepburn et al. 2005:
Hepburn, H.R., B. Radloff, G.W. Otis, S. Fuchs, L.R. Verma, T. Ken, T. Chaiyawong, G. Tahmaseb, R. Ebadi, and S. Wongsiri. 2005. Apis florea : morphometrics, classification and biogeography. Apidologie 36: 359ndash;376., Haddad et al. 2009Haddad et al. 2009:
Haddad, N. S. Fuchs, H.R. Hepburn, and S.E. Radloff. 2009. Apis florea in Jordan: source of the founder population. Apidologie 40: 508ndash;512.). It is also one of the most commonly intercepted species of honey bees, other than the western honey bee, at U.S. ports of entry (Smith-Pardo, unpublished data).
​Distribution map generated by Discover Life -- click on map for details, credits, and terms of use.
Authors: S. Burrows, C. Ritner, M. Christman, L. Spears, A. Smith-Pardo, S. Price, R. Ramirez, T. Griswold, A. Redford
Edition 3 - last updated November 2021
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