Rock bee, Giant honey bee
Apis dorsata, the rock bee or giant honey bee, is a honey bee of South and Southeast Asia. They are typically around 17–20 mm (0.7–0.8 in) long and nests are mainly built in exposed places far off the ground, like on tree limbs, under cliff overhangs, and under buildings. These social bees are known for their aggressive defense strategies and vicious behavior when disturbed. Though not domesticated, indigenous peoples have traditionally used this species as a source of honey and beeswax, a practice known as honey hunting.
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Apis dorsata is found from the Indian subcontinent to Southeast Asia. The greatest populations of Apis dorsata are found in China, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. In the Philippines, which used to have one of the greatest populations of Apis dorsata, the populations have now become relatively rare due to deforestation and people's "mindsets" towards the bees. They mostly reside in tall trees in dense forests, but also build nests on urban buildings. These bees are tropical and in most places, they migrate seasonally. Individual colonies migrate between nesting sites during the transition from the rainy to dry seasons and occupy each nesting site for about 3–4 months at a time. Some recent evidence indicates these bees return to the same nest site, though most, if not all, of the original workers might be replaced in the process because workers usually live for less than two months. Furthermore, these bees build small combs that serve as temporary nests during their long migrations.
In Bornean rainforests, Apis koschevnikovi and Apis dorsata are the only honeybees that appear frequently at flowering canopy trees or baits. Even though they share most of the same rain forest habitat, they are still able to coexist. Their difference in size and tongue length help separate their resource use.
Apis dorsata utilizes what is known as a dance language, also known as waggle dance, to communicate the location of food sources to other bees in the colony. The dance language indicates the distance, profitability, and direction of the food source. These social bees dance in the open and their dances produce sound signals of high intensity in the air. The orientation of the dancer's body points in the direction of the food source and the frequency of the sound indicates the profitability of the food source. Apis dorsata produces silent dances, which usually involve visual cues during the day. They additionally produce sound with their dances in the nighttime, as they are the only bees of its genus that exhibit nocturnal foraging activity. Furthermore, there is some evidence that Apis dorsata dances for migration purposes as well. Bees that have returned from the new nesting site perform dances that alert the colony of information such as the direction of the new nesting site.
A. dorsata foragers can travel farther than A. cerana and A. florea, which travel to a maximum of 500 meters; however, 72% of observed A. dorsata foragers traveled no more than 400 meters.
Apis dorsata differs from the other bees in its genus in terms of nest design. Each colony consists of a single vertical comb made of workers' wax suspended from above, and the comb is typically covered by a dense mass of bees in several layers. The nests vary in size, reaching up to 1 meter. Each cell within the comb is hexagonal in shape. Apis dorsata store their honey in an upper corner of the nest. The same size and type of cells are used to rear larvae. Nests are constructed in the open and in elevated locations, such as on urban buildings or tall trees. These bees rarely build nests on old or weak buildings for safety concerns. Apis dorsata can form dense aggregations at one nesting site, sometimes with up to 200 colonies in one tree.
Each colony can have up to 100,000 bees and is separated by only a few centimeters from the other colonies in an aggregation. Some colonies also exhibit patterns of nest recognition, in which they return to the same nesting sites post migration.
Some drones and the queen fly away from the nest and mate on the wing. This is called nuptial flight. The drone flights are comparatively shorter than those of other Asian honeybee species. The Apis dorsata flights occur around dusk for 13 minutes on average. Apis dorsata exhibit high degrees of polyandry, with many drones mating with the queen. In fact, Apis dorsata fabricius is known to have the highest levels of polyandry among all social insects. In general, this bee population experiences extreme multiple matings. This may be attributed to the short duration of flight times for mating. During mating, the drones fly to drone congregation areas (DCAs). There is sufficient evidence to conclude that each aggregation has its own DCA since there is more genetic relatedness within aggregations and because of the short duration and distance traveled during the mating flight.
