Surfing the Sweet Wave: Migrating Giant Honey Bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae:Apis dorsata) Display Spatial and Temporal Fidelity to Annual Stopover Site in Thailand

Abstract

Apis dorsata F. (Hymenoptera: Apidae), the giant honey bee of southern Asia, is an important pollinator of crops and non-cultivated angiosperms, and a producer of honey and beeswax. Its populations are in decline in many areas. Colonies migrate seasonally between highland and lowland nesting sites, taking advantage of available food sources. In 2009, a stopover site was discovered in Thailand where numerous migrating colonies bivouacked near one another. Bivouacs used the site again in 2010. I went to the site in 2016 to test the hypothesis that bees use the site regularly as part of an annual migration. I witnessed many bivouacs, spanning almost precisely the same time period and occupying the same area as in 2010. Here I describe their migratory dances in preparation for departure and their subsequent flights as well as periodic mass flight and defensive behavior. Analysis of photographs indicated that the bivouacking bees aged slowly and may thus live long enough to be capable of intergenerational transmission of migratory route knowledge. I describe attributes of the stopover site, e.g., abundant food and water availability, its location along a major river, and other possible navigational cues. Although the site is the only one of its kind so far known to researchers, such stopover sites probably exist wherever giant honey bees undertake long seasonal migrations. I recommend searching for bivouacking sites, particularly along rivers, wherever giant honey bees migrate. Stopover sites are undoubtedly essential to the life history and health of migratory bee populations, and thus warrant conservation policies.

Phylogeography of the Giant Honeybees Based on Mitochondrial Gene Sequences

“…This alone means that protecting a giant bee's nesting and foraging habitat means protecting more than one location. Migrating colonies of giant bees may travel distances that require "rest stops" to forage Recent work by Robinson (2012Robinson ( , 2021 has shown that migrating A. d. dorsata in Thailand also make use of "traditional" rest stops, where they forage for food and water for variable lengths of time before continuing their journey. These rest stops are also likely to be crucial for successful migration.…”

“…At least one set of observations has been made on the migration of A. d. binghami in Sulawesi (Nagir et al, 2016). Morse & Laigo (1969, cited in Robinson, 2021) reported that A. d. breviligula in the Philippines does not migrate.…”

Giant honeybees (Apis dorsata) trade off defensiveness against periodic mass flight activity

“…The experimental giant honeybee nest was monitored with a Panasonic HVX-200 high-definition camera ( Fig 1B ). The ‘720p/50’ mode used allowed recording with a spatial resolution of 1 280 × 720 pixels at 50 frames per s, for adequate documentation of motion activities on the nest such as flickering [ 57 ], shimmering [ 16 , 26 , 39 , 40 ], dance behaviour [ 13 ] or locomotion [ 42 ]. Fig 1C shows the experimental nest just during MFA in episode mfa 1 : Hundreds of bees buzz around the nest; their flight speed can be estimated from the length of their tracks during the recording time of 20 ms of a single frame.…”

“…laboriosa ( Smith ), 1871) [ 5 – 8 ] occurs from the Himalayan valley floors preferably up to an altitude of 3,200 m or even higher, with its range extending from Pakistan to northern Vietnam. Both species are extremely migratory [ 3 , 9 – 13 ] and regularly switch from singularized nests hidden in forests to the reproductive status, where they form colony aggregations at traditional roost sites [ 7 , 9 , 14 ]. They have the ability to exploit niches in food sources that are spurned even by other flower-visiting species and, on the other hand, can anticipate their migratory cycles to take advantage of the seasonal supply of local agriculture [ 12 , 13 , 15 ], which distinguishes them as a synanthropic species.…”

“…This mouth zone has a specific, more intensive motion profile [ 28 ], because this is where forager bees leave the nest or return from visited nectar and pollen sources. There bees also exhibit dancing behavior [ 13 ] and trophallaxis [ 29 – 33 ], and when loaded with nectar or pollen, foragers find their way inside the nest here, and guards [ 34 ] also provide special protection from intruders here.…”