Iberian bee

Iberian bee
	Iberian bee ( Apis mellifera iberiensis )
Systematics
without rank:	Bees (Apiformes)
Family :	Apidae
Subfamily :	Apinae
Genre :	Honey bees ( apis )
Type :	Western honey bee ( Apis mellifera )
Subspecies :	Iberian bee
Scientific name
	Apis mellifera iberiensis
	Angel , 1999

The Iberian bee ( Apis mellifera iberiensis ), also known as the Spanish bee , is a subspecies of the western honey bee . It is native to the whole of the Iberian Peninsula and, through settlement, also to the Balearic Islands . In southern Spain the distribution overlaps with the tell bee .

Morphology and behavior

The Iberian bee belongs to the breed group of dark honey bees from Northern and Western Europe and is just as big as the dark European bee, which was originally native to Central and Northern Europe . There is also hardly any difference in color.

Apis mellifera iberiensis depends on a temperate climate and is less suitable for tropical regions. This has been proven by countless attempts to settle in South America at the time of colonization , when other breeds, in particular the African and Italian bees , were always better suited. In terms of behavior, she is not particularly meek, she putties a lot and raves little.

Taxonomy

The subspecies was previously called Apis mellifera iberica (Goetze, 1964). The beekeeper Friedrich Ruttner found out in 1988 that Skorikov had already given this name to another clan from Azerbaijan in 1929; In addition, the four-part name given by Goetze ( Apis mellifica intermissa iberica ) was invalid according to today's zoological rules of nomenclature. Michael S. Engel therefore introduced the replacement name Apis mellifera iberiensis for the Iberian bee in 1999 .

literature

Friedrich Ruttner : Natural history of honey bees . Franckh Kosmos Verlag, Stuttgart 1992, ISBN 3-440-09125-2

Web links

Apis mellifera iberiensis . In: Atlas Hymenoptera , accessed January 6, 2019.

Individual evidence

↑ DR Smith, MF Palopoli, BR Taylor, L. Garnery, J.-M. Cornuet, M. Solignac, WM Brown: Geographical Overlap of Two Mitochondrial Genomes in Spanish Honeybees (Apis mellifera iberica). The Journal of Heredity, Oxford University Press 03/01/1991.
↑ Michael S. Engel: The taxonomy of recent and fossil honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae; Apis). Journal of Hymenoptera Research (1999) 8 (2): 165-196.

[1] DR Smith, MF Palopoli, BR Taylor, L. Garnery, J.-M. Cornuet, M. Solignac, WM Brown: Geographical Overlap of Two Mitochondrial Genomes in Spanish Honeybees (Apis mellifera iberica). The Journal of Heredity, Oxford University Press 03/01/1991.

[2] Michael S. Engel: The taxonomy of recent and fossil honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae; Apis). Journal of Hymenoptera Research (1999) 8 (2): 165-196.