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Development, behaviour, productivity, and health status of the native honey bee Apis mellifera ruttneri vs. the introduced A. m. ligustica in Malta

Articles

The tiny population of the endemic Maltese honey bee (A. m. ruttneri) is threatened by anthropogenic influences, such as urbanisation, habitat loss, and unsustainable agricultural practices, but most prominently by the importation of commercially important non-native stock. To obtain data on the colony life cycle parameters of A. m. ruttneri and to measure its apicultural performance in…

Biotic and Abiotic Stresses on Honeybee Health

Articles

Honeybees are the most critical pollinators providing key ecosystem services that underpin crop production and sustainable agriculture. Amidst a backdrop of rapid global change, this eusocial insect encounters a succession of stressors during nesting, foraging, and pollination. Ectoparasitic mites, together with vectored viruses, have been recognized as central biotic threats to honeybee health, while the…

Effects of local domestication warrant attention in honey bee population genetics

Articles

Honey bees, Apis mellifera, have for millennia been managed and exploited by humans and introduced into most suitable regions worldwide. However, given the lack of records for many introduction events, treating A. mellifera populations as native would predictably bias genetic studies regarding origin and evolution. Here, we used the Dongbei bee, a well-documented population, introduced…

Transcriptomic Responses Underlying the High Virulence of Black Queen Cell Virus and Sacbrood Virus following a Change in Their Mode of Transmission in Honey Bees (Apis mellifera)

Articles

Background: Over the last two decades, honey bees (Apis mellifera) have suffered high rates of colony losses that have been attributed to a variety of factors, chief among which are viral pathogens, such as deformed wing virus (DWV), whose virulence has increased because of vector-based transmission by the invasive, ectoparasitic varroa mite (Varroa destructor). A…

Genetic diversity and population structure of the Saharan honey bee Apis mellifera sahariensis from southeastern Morocco: introgression assessment and implications for conservation

Articles

Abstract – This study assessed the conservation status of the Saharan honey bee (Apis mellifera sahariensis) from southeastern Morocco using 12 microsatellite loci to examine genetic diversity and hybridization with other subspecies. Samples from 148 colonies were clustered into seven populations representing the expected distribution of A. m. intermissa and A. m. sahariensis, and reference…