Kingdom Animalia Superfamily Apoidea Subfamily Apinae Scientific name Apis cerana nuluensis Higher classification Apis cerana Order Hymenopterans | Suborder Apocrita Family Apidae Tribe Apini Phylum Arthropoda Rank Subspecies | |
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Similar Apis koschevnikovi, Apis nigrocincta, Apis cerana, Honey bee, Bee | ||
Apis cerana nuluensis is a subspecies of honey bee described in 1996 by Tingek, Koeniger & Koeniger. The geographic distribution of the subspecies is the south-east Asian island of Borneo, politically divided between Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei.
A. c. nuluensis is one of a number of Asiatic honey bees, including the more obscure Apis koschevnikovi and Apis nigrocincta (the latter of which has nearby habitat on nearby Sulawesi and Mindanao islands)
While this was originally described as a species, it has since been classified as a geographic race (subspecies) of the widespread A. cerana (Engel, 1999). Molecular evidence suggests it is divergent enough in its DNA sequences to potentially represent a biological species (Arias & Sheppard, 2005), but there has been no formal reassignment to date, and no hybridization studies have been performed to confirm this hypothesis.
Like many honey bees, A. c. nuluensis is liable to infestation by the parasitic Varroa mite, although in this case the particular species is Varroa underwoodi. (In this aspect, A. c. nuluensis is similar to A. nigrocincta)