Skip to main content

Asian honey bee (Apis cerana)

Asian honey bee (Apis cerana) is an animal species in Apidae, honey bees that build nests consisting of many combs in cavities that have small entrances, eat pollen and nectar, are very social, live in forests and plantations in an ecosystem together with other bee species.

A. cerana has long, erect hair and covers compound eyes, helps pollen collection, the scutellum is very convex and the lobes are also on the hind wings. Adults are black, with four or five yellow stripes on the abdomen.

Dlium Asian honey bee (Apis cerana)


Workers use their hind legs to transport pollen and stingers instead of organs for laying eggs. The queen is a reproductive female, usually larger in size because of the enlarged reproductive organs. The drone is male, has bigger eyes, does not have a stinger and is a blunt stomach.

A nest is a simple vertical comb made of wax secreted by workers, whereas thermoregulation is produced by fanning and evaporation of water collected in the field. This large-scale storage tactic requires the construction of a stable and sturdy comb structure for storage of the honey.

The production of wax for combs is an expensive and energetic endeavor, colonies generally do not build entire structures early on. Colonies construct sequences of smaller combs that meet initial storage needs. After moving to a new hive, the colony will continue to enlarge the comb until there are sufficient storage units to meet all the honey needs.

In general, the initial series of combs can be about 20,000 cells, while the finished structure can contain up to 100,000. These nests are usually large enough to accommodate about 6,000 to 7,000 individuals and are found in a variety of external environments.



Asian honey bee maintains body temperature in the range 33-36C even though the ambient temperature varies between 12-36C. A mechanism demonstrating an effective nest thermoregulation system. Workers use evaporative cooling, which gathers outside the nest in hot weather and fan the wings to remove excess heat and humidity inside the hive.

Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Subphylum: Hexapoda
Class: Insecta
Subclass: Pterygota
Order: Hymenoptera
Suborder: Apocrita
Infraorder: Aculeata
Superfamily: Apoidea
Epifamily: Anthophila
Family: Apidae
Subfamily: Apinae
Tribe: Apini
Genus: Apis
Subgenus: Apis
Species: Apis cerana
Subspecies: Apis cerana ssp. cerana, Apis cerana ssp. indica, Apis cerana ssp. japonica

Popular Posts

Sea almond (Terminalia catappa)

Ketapang or tropical almond or beach almond or talisay tree or umbrella tree or sea almond ( Terminalia catappa ) is a species of plant in the Combretaceae, a shady tree, fast growing, forming a multilevel canopy, often used as a shade tree in gardens and on roadsides. T. catappa grows large, up to 40 meters in height and up to 1.5 meters in trunk, shady canopy with branches that grow flat and terraced, young trees often look like pagodas while old and large trees often have aerial roots up to 3 meters. The leaves are scattered, mostly at the end of the twig, rounded egg upside down, 8-38 cm long, 5-19 cm wide, the tip is wide, the base is narrow, the upper surface is smooth, green but turns red if to fall out and short stalks. The flowers are small, collected near the tips of the twigs, 8-25 cm long and green-yellow in color. The flowers are not crowned, the petals have five taju, are plate or bell shaped, 4-8 mm long and are white or cream in color. Stamens in two circles and arra...

Asian foxtail (Uraria crinita)

Asian foxtail or cat's tail bean ( Uraria crinita ) is a species of plant in Fabaceae, a perennial, upright shrub with woody stems at least at the base, up to 2 meters high in forests, agricultural land, waterways, used as a medicinal herb, green manure and sometimes planted in the garden as an ornamental plant. U. crinita has elongated leaves, rounded base, pointed tip, a bone in the middle with several pinnate veins, rough surface, dark green with white spots. Petiole short or less than 0.5 cm and brownish red. Compound flower in spike shape, purple and white triangular crown. Long flower stalk, erect, 15-20 cm long and only at the end of the flower. The crown slowly falls off and leaves behind a stalk that is shaped like coir or light yellow pads. Asian foxtail grows in dry grasslands, open forests, trash cans, roadsides, sandy areas and sometimes in deciduous forests, elevations of 0-1500 meters and does not grow in waterlogged places. The different parts are often used in t...

Kunu buti (Mesosphaerum suaveolens)

Kunu buti ( Mesosphaerum suaveolens ) is a species of plant in the Lamiaceae family. It is an erect, herbaceous annual, growing up to 1.5 meters tall. Its cylindrical, rough, brown or green stem is hairy and white. It grows on forest floors, bushes, agricultural fields, and roadsides. Its roots are fibrous and brownish-yellow. M. suaveolens has single, opposite leaves, stalks 2-5 cm long and hairy. The leaf blades are green, hairy, oval, with pointed tips, blunt bases, serrated edges, up to 6 cm long, up to 5 cm wide, and pinnate veins. The flowers are compound, axillary, in clusters, perfect, and bisexual. The petals are attached, forming a tube, each tip elongated like a spine, soft, 3-10 mm long, and green. The corolla is attached, asymmetrically detached, 1-2 cm long, and purple. The fruit is single, hard, capsule-shaped, hairy on the surface, and green or brown in color. The seeds are round, small and blackish brown in color. TAXON Kingdom: Plantae Phylum: Tracheophyta Subphyl...