Study On Population Dynamics And Colony Diversity Of Apis Cerana Cerana In Southern Anhui

On the basis of a review on the research of oriental honey bees,population dynamics and colony diversity of the Chinese honey bee,Apis cerana cerana,in montanic area of southern Anhui were studied systematically,by use of methods of population dynamics ahd molecular biology.The following results were achieved.1.Study on population dynamics and structure characterization of Apis cerana cerana Fab.led to the following results:The queens of the Chinese honey bee in this area had high fecundity and poor swarming capacity,but the capacity of different colonies were different.It kept strong colony potential,with long effective collecting period.Queens had short oversummering oviposition-off,without clear potential decline,and short and overwinterring period,with little and stable food consumption. The fecundity of a queen,high in spring and autumn,and low in summer and winter, and population size,big in spring and fall,and small in summer and winter,were impacted obviously by climate and honey and nectar plant.Five different periods appeared in bee colony:spring reproduction period,natural warming period, oversummering period,autumn refreshment period,and overwintering period.Sex ratio ranged within 278.5:1～381.2:1.Drones emergence varied seasonally and were bred mostly in swarming seasons.Age composition varied continually.The colony potential of the swarm which bred spados,with early developed glands,in autumn for overwintering declinedat a low rate and kept in quite status,with low forage consumption,indicating an overwintering stability.Cutting off offspring by imprisonment of queens improved both quantity and quality of adaptive overwintering bees.Age composition of a overwintering swarm,which impacting stability and result of overwintering,was influenced by breeding adaptive overwintering bees and cutting off offspring through imprisonment of queens.The techniques of breeding adaptive overwintering bees and cutting offspring by imprisonment of queens should be taken in the seasonal management of new feeding methods.2.The eggs of the Chinese honey bee did not hatch,and development duration differed significantly at 32,34 and 36℃(P＜0.05),sterilized eggs hatched at a non significantly different rate(P＞0.05),while unsterilized eggs at a significantly different rate(P＜0.05).The queens and the cell-covered stage drones were influenced by temperature,resulting in significantly different newborn weight and mature time(P＜0.05).Frequency for hiving discerning flying for queens and drones were 1.23～1.31 and 1.08～1.13,respectively,and flying duration was 0.12～0.13 and 0.16～0.20h,respectively.Frequency for coupling flight was 1.10～1.12 and 1.01～1.05, respectively and flying duration was 0.22～0.23 and 0.18～0.23h,respectively.The most suitable temperature for coupling was 20～28℃.Semen number was 3.37×10⁶～4.15×10⁶ in lateral oviduct in one coupling flight and 3.55×10⁶～3.62×10⁶ in spermathecal sac in natural coupulation.The newborn weight of a queen was positively correlated to oviposition amount,with r=0.715(P＜0.05).Yearly oviposition of queen was impacted obviously by climate and origin of honey and nectar.The greater the colony potential was and the higher the temperature at the center of swarm was,the bigger the swarm size was,the earlier started oviposition the queens.Honeycomb of the honey bee of larvae of different generations bred by new breeding method was studied.The result indicated that the volume and shape were changed due to accumulated cocoon and feces,which affected breeding offspring.The bees tended to destroy old comb by chewing,causing much trouble to management, while the cumulated wax debris promoted wax moth infestation.The fundamental management strategy was to adapt the preference behavior to a new comb by frequent comb change.In this area,development duration was 14.3 d(332～353h)for queens, 19.1 d(446～468h)for spados,and 24.1 d(556～576h),and weight of a queen was 167.7 mg for queens,94.4 for spados,and 146.4 mg for drones.The changing seasonal temperature made the development duration of the bee shortened or elongated,which caused extreme significant difference of newborn weight(P＜0.01). The rate of weight gain was slow in 90 h after hatching,sped up after 90h. Accordingly,the larvae for queens and drones should be kept in stable hive environment in order to raise the quality of breeding queens and drones.Colony temperature and its adjustment were investigated in the honeybees bred by both new and old breeding methods in the montanic area.The result showed that the temperature of the honeybee swarm bred at comb center by new breeding method was 32.57±0.29℃34.0±0.33℃32.19±0.26℃,and 26.14±0.39℃,respectively in spring,summer,autumn,and winter,while the temperature at comb edge was 22.24±1.77℃,33.71±0.64℃19.27±0.54℃and 14.2±0.09℃respectively in the seasons.The temperature of the honeybee swarm bred at comb center by old breeding method was 32.78±0.60℃34.26±0.31℃,32.39±0.26℃and 27.47±0.31℃, respectively,while the temperature at comb edge was 22.49±1.77℃34.08±0.66℃, 19.68±0.52℃,and 14.81±0.07℃,respectively.The temperature at comb center of the swarms bred by both new and old breeding methods was extremely significantly different to environment temperature(P<0.01),and that at comb edge was significantly different to environment temperature in summer and winter(P<0.05), but not significantly different in spring and autumn(P>0.05).In winter,the temperatures at both center and edge of the swarm bred by old breeding methods were higher than those by new method.The center temperature was kept at 30.5～32.6℃through group regulation in swarms bred in a cooler,while kept at 27.8～31.8℃in an incubator.The center temperature of an overwintering swarm changed in accord with environment temperature.As the colony potential declined,the center and edge temperatures changed with more fluctuation,and overwintering stability declined.4.Food resource niche breadths of the Chinese honeybee and the Italian honeybee were 0.923 and 0.765,respectively,and niche overlap index and niche similarity of the 2 bee species were 0.142 and 0.755,respectively.During flowering phase of oil rape,time resource niche breadths were 0.879 and 0.901,respectively, and the index and the similarity were 0.146 and 0.875,respectively;during flowering phase of loquat,the breadth 0.760 and 0.677,respectively,and index and similarity 0.139 and 0.901,respectively.Spatial resource niche breadths of the 2 bee species were 0.797 and 0.670,niche overlap index 0.179,and niche similarity 0.903.There were many niche overlaps between the 2 honeybees,but there were many differences between their respective characteristics,and the niche breadth in local pollination resource for the Chinese honeybee was wider than that for the Italian honeybee.If the former gets extinct,total local pollination will be decreased,resulting in that pollination of many plants is influenced,some species will decrease gradually until extinction,and as a result,plant diversity will decline in the montanic area. Accordingly,the Chinese honeybee is a necessary link of important ecological value in the natural ecosystems in China.Its protection is the protection of honeybee genetic diversity,which plays an important role on vegetation recovery,species diversity preservation,and ecological environment improvement.In montanic area of south Anhui and Baibieshan montanic area of west Anhui, area of Yangtze-Huaihe Rivers,as well as Huaibei Plains,change of habitat and interspecific competition are the main limiting factors for colony distribution.The montanic area of south Anhui and Baibieshan montanic area of west Anhui,with wide distribution area and high distribution density in favorable ecological environment including intact vegetation,abundant honey and nectar plant,queen couple with little interference,are excellent site for the Chinese honeybee,where the its colonies are large,and play a superior role in interspecific competition.Comparatively,in areas of Yangtze-Huaihe Rivers,and Huaibei Plains,where ecosystems have been somewhat ruined,with simple vegetation,monotonous honey and nectar plant,short and concentrated flowering phase,the natural mating of the Chinese honeybees,inferior in the interspesific competition,is interfered by the Italian honeybee,Apis mellifera ligustica,and colonies have decreased sharply,with its distribution shrunk and density declined to a great extent.It happened more seriously in Huaibei Plains than in the area of Yangtze-Huaihe Rivers.5.Eight morphorlogical features of each spado in 15 feral colonies,15 bees each colony,were tested for difference significance test and principal component analysis, discriminant test,and cluster analysis.The results showed that they were morphologically different,with significant differences in lengths of beak length and right fore-wing,breadth and color of the 3^rdand 4^thdorsal plate,which displayed great polymorphism and polytypism and clear ecogeological variation types,suggesting highly ecological adaptation.Seventeen colonies of the Chinese honeybee from montanic areas of southern Anhui,Zhejiang and Jiangxi were tested for mtDNA diversity.Their mtDNA's amplified were sequenced and compared.Four mt haplotypies were discovered:â‘ A₁A₂A₃ and B₃,â‘¡C₁C₂C₃,â‘¢B₂,andâ‘£the rest.Their mtDNA sequences were not significantly different.The sequencing result of a 440bp long fragment of mtDNA Cytochrome c-oxidase gene(COâ…¡)revealed that among the fragment,G+C content varied from 15.1～15.7%,and A+T from 84.3～84.9;there were 8 variation sites totally in the 440bp's,with 3 T-C transitions,2 A-T transversions,and 4 parsimony sites,but there were 0-6 sites(0～1.36%)in the 440bp's of each colony.Among the colonies of Huizhou District,Tunxi District,and Huangshan District in the same area,there were 2,3,and 1 variation sites,respectively.However,between some colonies from Qimen County and Sexian County in different areas,there was no variation site in their COâ…¡bene nucleotide sequences.The genetic similarities were all over 0.967 between the Chinese honeybee colonies from southern Anhui,over 0.971 between those from southern Anhui and Zhejiang,over 0.973 between those from southern Anhui and Jiangxi,suggesting that the honeybee of southern Anhui is closely related to those of Zhejiang and Jiangxi.Based on a cladogram analysis by Cluster V,there were 5 clustered groups:A and B₃;C;B₂;E₁;D,B₁,E₂,E₃ and those from Jiangxi and Zhejiang.