European Honey Bee
New Colony
European Honey Bee
Swarm, Close Up
Animals
Plants
Info
| European Honey Bee New Colony | | European Honey Bee Swarm, Close Up | | ||
Animals Plants Info |
 | Class: | Animals (Animalia) - Jointed Legs (Arthropoda) - Insects (Insecta) | ||||||||||||||
| Order: | Ant Bee Wasps (Hymenoptera) | |||||||||||||||
| Family: | Long-tongued Bee (Bee:Apidae) iNaturalist Observation | |||||||||||||||
| Species: | European Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)| This Photo: | 🔍Swarm🔎 | Other name: | Commercial Honey Bee | Thank you Dr John Ascher (JohnAscher), Frank Prinz (Frank_Prinz), Terra Occ & (HowardDC) for confirming the id of this species for us General Species Information: Found on Ellura (in the Murray Mallee, SA), the Adelaide Hills, Coastal Areas and elsewhere Most people think of these insects in a positive light, but like all introduced species are an environmental headache and should be eradicated where possible. Please don't allow bee keepers to use your bush block for bees. Would you allow someone to plough your native vegetation to grow crops? European Bees are just as devastating, but the damage is hidden (eg using up precious hollows used by our birds and reptiles), spreading over many kilometres to neighbouring properties & reserves. Our native bees are also less aggressive and solitary (in SA). If you thought all European Bees don't look alike, you'd be right. Peri Coleman said "There are three main races of bees in Australia, and a very few of two other races. Main races used by bee keepers: 1. Italian (yellow banded): have 5 yellow bands, but the Ligurian sub-race has less than 5 yellow bands & have a yellow queen. The Ligurian bees of Kangaroo Island are a sub-race of Italian bees, and the early settlement bees were blackish coloured "Black Germans", but I don't know if any of these are still cultivated 2. Caucasian (bigger, grey): are dark grey, hardly banded at all, and have a long body 3. Carniolan (smallest): have creamy light bands which gives them a greyish look, and are smaller than Italians. They have a dark queen. Quarantine in North Queensland keeps a close eye out for Asian Honey Bees as they are likely to bring in Nosema disease. It is considered they are most likely to get here via shipping to a northern port or by island hopping from New Guinea." ************************************************ Humans do get very emotional about spiders. With the Red-Back & Sydney Funnel Web given a special place in our culture (they are the most dangerous spiders in the world), but the Funnel web has only about 13 deaths recorded against it (ever). In fact, only 27 fatalities from all spiders in Australia (mainly children, sick & ederly). 138 shark fatalities ever. About 1 snake fatality a year. At least these animals were here first. Yet 10 people every year die in Australia from introduced European Honey Bees, and somehow people think of them in such a positive way?
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