b a ckground: the varroa destructor mite is considered as a major pest of honey bees apis mellifera . the rapid spread of varroa mites among bee colonies may be due to several factors, including drifting of infested bees, movement of bee swarms, and robbing of weakened colonies. disease spread and predisposing the infested bees to other diseases lead to high economic losses in beekeeping indust...

Bees of the genus Apis are important foragers of nectar and pollen resources. Although the European honeybee, Apis mellifera, has been well studied with respect to its sensory abilities, learning behaviour and role as pollinators, much less is known about the other Apis species. We studied the anatomical spatial resolution and absolute sensitivity of the eyes of three sympatric species of Asian...

Genetic diversity is a key component of ecosystems. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the genetic diversity of Iranian native honeybee colonies (Apis mellifera meda L.) located in the northern region. Colonies from 24 locations have been analyzed using microsatellite markers. Samples were collected from Caspian Sea southern area (north of Iran). Six microsatellite markers (A28, A29, ...

Apis mellifera venom is one of the best characterized venoms among Hymenoptera, yet relatively little is known about venom belonging to other species in the genus Apis. Melittin, one of the most important bioactive peptides, has been isolated and characterized in A. mellifera, Apis cerana, Apis dorsata and Apis florea, while apamin has been only characterized in A. mellifera and A. cerana. At p...

Nosema diseases is known to have two infecting Apis mellifera, Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae. Historically N. apis was known to be well established pathogen of A. mellifera. Whoever N. ceranae was frequently reported to infect the honeybees during the last decade. Both N. apis and N. ceranae are now thought to be widespread across the world. Honey bees are also found to be co-infected with bot...

This study compared stress-induced expression of Cu-Zn superoxide dismutase (SOD1) and thioredoxin reductase (TrxR) genes in the European honeybee Apis mellifera L. and Asian honeybee Apis cerana F. Expression of both SOD1 and TrxR rapidly increased up to 5 h after exposure to cold (4 °C) or heat (37 °C) treatment and then gradually decreased, with a stronger effect induced by cold stress in A....