Apis mellifera, the name of the species of Apis well known to keepers of the bees! And yet, as is true of much about the honey bee, even the name can get complicated . . . Among the complications is that, with this particular species of honey bee, subspecies abound.
A Species and Its Subspecies
We recognize subspecies by an extension that is added to the name—for example, the African honey bee, Apis mellifera scutellata, and the Italian honey bee, Apis mellifera ligustica. While writing Honey-Maker, I found that there were 24 distinct subspecies. A more recent paper cites 31 subspecies: fifteen in Europe and the Caucasus region, eleven in Africa, and five in the Middle East and Central Asia.
Because the subspecies belong to the same species, they are able to mate and to reproduce. By definition. A species is “a group of living organisms consisting of similar individuals capable of exchanging genes or interbreeding. The species is the principal natural taxonomic unit, ranking below a genus and denoted by a Latin binomial, e.g. Homo sapiens.” Once two different populations come together, no matter which subspecies its members, there’s no keeping them apart; further, as happens in cross breeding, their offspring are then hybrids.
The species as well as the subspecies itself are sources of what may be termed biological information—they each house genetic material that has been honed through time and circumstance. We see its expression through the characteristic traits, physiology, and behaviors associated with the known subspecies of Apis mellifera. As such, the subspecies thought to be one first brought to the Americas by European settlers, Apis mellifera mellifera, tends to be relatively adjusted to cold and damp, yet susceptible to brood disease and may become more defensive than some of the others. Down the line, with hybridization, this information, no matter the subspecies, becomes diluted and the unique genetics of the subspecies—and its expression—lost.
A Subspecies and Its Environment
Honey bee subspecies have not evolved in a vacuum; instead, over millennia they have been and are part of ecosystems with flora shaped by each. It may come as no surprise then that efforts are underway to conserve both to the degree possible.
The Cornish bee is the subject of recent news in this regard. Yet another name for Apis mellifera mellifera, along with European dark bee and black German bee, the Cornish bee now thrives near Helston as well as in a few other areas of Cornwall. The Helston site is home to the first National Trust property in the United Kingdom to be named as a natural haven for native bees; twenty colonies of honey bees no doubt find it a haven, indeed. In a related effort, farmers, landowners, and the public are being asked get involved in creating new pollinator habitat, restoring wildflower-rich areas throughout the region.
These bees are among the pockets of Apis mellifera mellifera that have been cared for and nurtured since the British black bee (yet another name for this subspecies) was thought to have become extinct as a result of Isle of Wight disease in the early 1900s. In this center for research on native stocks, Cornwall beekeepers, too, are being asked to participate. The request: to avoid importing of other subspecies to Cornwall—for reasons that may be all too obvious.
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Fontana, Paolo, et al. 2018. Appeal for biodiversity protection of native honey bee subspecies of Apis mellifera in Italy (San Michele all’Adige declaration). Bulletin of Insectology 71 (2): 257–271.
Mattingly, Rosanna. Honey-Maker: How the Honey Bee Worker Does What She Does. November 2012. Beargrass Press. Portland, Oregon.
Trewhela, Lee. The Cornish bee has gone from near extinction to helping save the world. Accessed 10.7.19: https://www.cornwalllive.com/news/cornwall-news/cornish-bee-gone-near-extinction-3435233