Ecology, Behaviour and Control of Apis cerana with a Focus on Relevance to the Australian Incursion

Insects

关键词: Apis cerana;    Apis mellifera;    incursion;    pest species;    Australia;    pollination;    competition;    distribution;    control;   

DOI  :  10.3390/insects4040558

来源: mdpi

【 摘 要 】

Apis cerana Fabricius is endemic to most of Asia, where it has been used for honey production and pollination services for thousands of years. Since the 1980s, A. cerana has been introduced to areas outside its natural range (namely New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, and Australia), which sparked fears that it may become a pest species that could compete with, and negatively affect, native Australian fauna and flora, as well as commercially kept A. mellifera and commercial crops. This literature review is a response to these concerns and reviews what is known about the ecology and behaviour of A. cerana. Differences between temperate and tropical strains of A. cerana are reviewed, as are A. cerana pollination, competition between A. cerana and A. mellifera, and the impact and control strategies of introduced A. cerana, with a particular focus on gaps of current knowledge.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© 2013 by the authors; licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.