In south India there are two distinct colour morphs of cavity nesting honey bees: the yellow Plain morph and the black Hill morph which are collectively known as Apis cerana. We show that the Hill morph is associated with a widely distributed mitochondrial haplotype that is present throughout mainland populations of south east Asian A. cerana. In contrast, the Plain morph, which is apparently confined to low to moderate elevations in India and Sri Lanka, is associated with a unique mitochondrial haplotype that is not present in other cavity nesting honey bees. We further show that in a region of sympatry (Bangalore, Karnataka State) the drone mating flight times of the two colour morphs barely overlap. Combined, drone flight data and the complete separation of mitochondrial haplotypes suggest that the two morphs are reproductively isolated. The Plain morph is distinguished from the Hill morph by the first three abdominal tergites of the worker, which are completely yellow in the Plain morph, whereas in the Hill morph they are black or black with yellow patches. Although the two morphs are generally distinguishable in the field by overall colouration, microscopic examination of the first 3 abdominal tergites is preferred.
When a honey bee colony becomes queenless and broodless its only reproductive option is for some of its workers to produce sons before the colony perishes. However, for this to be possible the policing of workerlaid eggs must be curtailed and this provides the opportunity for queenless colonies to be reproductively parasitized by workers from other nests. Such reproductive parasitism is known to occur in Apis florea and A. cerana. Microsatellite analyses of worker samples have demonstrated that the proportion of non-natal workers present in an A. cerana colony declines after a colony is made queenless. This observation suggests that queenless A. cerana colonies may be more vigilant in repelling potentially parasitic non-natal workers than queenright colonies. We compared rates of nestmate and nonnestmate acceptance in both queenright and queenless A. cerana colonies using standard assays and showed that there is no statistical difference between the proportion of non-nestmate workers that are rejected in queenless and queenright colonies. We also show that, contrary to earlier reports, A. cerana guards are able to discriminate nestmate workers from non-nestmates, and that they reject significantly more non-nestmate workers than nestmate workers.
Use of Natural plant products in the management of the greater wax moth, G. mellonella L. under laboratory conditions was carried out. The results revealed that the larval mortality of wax moth varied significantly with three different plant products concentrations. The mortality was high with seed extract of Neem (Azadirachta indica) and is ranging from 84.81 ± 2.7 to 93.65 ±3.25 per cent at different concentrations. Tulasi (Ocimum sanctum) leaf extract of different concentrations showed moderate larval mortality for different instars ranging from 65.36 ± 4.36 to 73.41± 4.46 percent. The corresponding mortality for Pongamia (Pongamia pinnata) seed extract was low 31.10 ± 3.38 to 52.1 ± 19.85. The effects of tulasi were moderate while pongamia caused the lowest mortality. Of the three plant products tested Neem performed better under all the experimental conditions.
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