Rank Subspecies | Genus Apis | |
Similar Apis mellifera cecropia, Apis mellifera macedonica, Apis mellifera unicolor, Apis mellifera intermissa, Maltese honey bee | ||
apis mellifera cypria
Apis mellifera cypria is a mediterranean bee sub-species of the European honey bee species. Known commonly as the Cyprus honey bee, otherwise as A. m. cypria Pollmann 1879
Contents
Behaviour
This bee tends not to swarm.
In a 2008 study, the growth rate of colonies was observed to be at the least during the hottest month, while the most growth occurred during a month with temperature closer to the yearly average (or slightly above).
Defense
Papachristoforou et al found that in the presence of the predatory oriental hornet (Vespa orientalis) the bees initially generate an acoustic response, further reacting to eliminate the insect by asphyxiation.
Taxonomy
A genetically separate group from the Greek bee sub-species,macedonica and cecropia (Bouga et al. 2005), is (mtD.N.A) related to A.m.Anatoliaca and meda. (Kandemir et al. 2005).
By morphometric analysis the sub-species is determined as belonging to the Oriental branch of the Apis genus.