Studies On Reproductive Behaviour Ecology, Growth And Colony Temperature Regulation Of Apis Cerana Cerana In Southern Anhui

On the basis of a review on the research of honeybee, reproductive behaviorecology, individual growth, niche and temperature adjustment of Apis cerana cerana,in montanic area of southern Anhui were studied systematically. The following resultswere achieved.1 The eggs of the Chinese honey bee did not hatch, and development durationdiffered significantly at 32, 34 and 36℃(P <0.05), sterilized eggs hatched at a nonsignificantly different rate (P>0.05), while unsterilized eggs at a significantlydifferent rate (P <0.05). The queens and the cell-covered stage drones wereinfluenced by temperature, resulting in significantly different newborn weight andmature time (P <0.05). Frequency for hiving discerning flying for queens and droneswere 1.23～1.31 and 1.08～1.13, respectively, and flying duration was 0.12～0.13 and0.16～0.20h, 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. Themost suitable temperature for coupling was 20～28℃. Semen number was 3.37×10⁶～4.15×10⁶ in lateral oviduct in one coupling flight and 3.55×10^6～3,62×10⁶ inspermathecal sac in natural coupulation. The newborn weight of a queen waspositively correlated to oviposition amount, with r=0.715 (P <0.05). Yearlyoviposition of queen was impacted obviously by climate and origin of honey andnectar. The greater the colony potential was and the higher the temperature at thecenter of swarm was, the bigger the swarm size was, the earlier started oviposition thequeens.2 Honeycomb of the honey bee of larvae of different generations bred by newbreeding method was studied. The result indicated that the volume and shape werechanged due to accumulated cocoon and feces, which affected breeding offspring. Thebees tended to destroy old comb by chewing, causing much trouble to management,while the cumulated wax debris promoted wax moth infestation. The fundamentalmanagement strategy was to adapt the preference behavior to a new comb by frequentcomb change. In this area, development duration was 14.3 d (332～353 h) for queens,19.1 d (446～468 h) for spados, and 24.1 d (556～576 h), and weight of a queen was167.7 mg for queens, 94.4 for spados, and 146.4 mg for drones. The changingseasonal 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 90 h.Accordingly, the larvae for queens and drones should be kept in stable hiveenvironment in order to raise the quality of breeding queens and drones. Foodresource niche breadths of Apis cerana cerana and Apis mellifera ligustica were 0.923and 0.765, respectively, and niche overlap index and niche similarity of the 2 beespecies were 0.142 and 0.755, respectively. During flowering phase of oil rape, timeresource niche breadths were 0.879 and 0.901, respectively, and the index and thesimilarity were 0.146 and 0.875, respectively; during flowering phase of loquat, thebreadth 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 and0.670, niche overlap index 0.179, and niche similarity 0.903.4 Colony temperature and its adjustment were investigated in the honeybees bredby both new and old breeding methods in the montanic area. The result showed thatthe temperature of the honeybee swarm bred at comb center by new breeding methodwas 32.57±0.29℃, 34.03±0.33℃, 32.19±0.26℃, and 26.14±0.39℃, respectivelyin 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 theseasons. The temperature of the honeybee swarm bred at comb center by old breedingmethod 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 ofthe swarms bred by both new and old breeding methods was extremely significantlydifferent to environment temperature (P<0.01), and that at comb edge wassignificantly different to environment temperature in summer and winter (P<0.05)butnot significantly different in spring and autumn (P>0.05). In winter, the temperaturesat both center and edge of the swarm bred by old breeding methods were higher thanthose by new method. The center temperature was kept at 30.5～32.6℃through groupregulation in swarms bred in a cooler, while kept at 27.8～31.8℃in an incubator. Thecenter temperature of an overwintering swarm changed in accord with environmenttemperature. As the colony potential declined, the center and edge temperatureschanged with more fluctuation, and overwintering stability declined.