Comments on: Interesting Long Term Study of “Killer Bee” Role in South American Ecology https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/10/05/interesting-long-term-study-of/ Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:00:31 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.6 By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/10/05/interesting-long-term-study-of/#comment-547719 Wed, 07 Oct 2009 09:00:31 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/10/05/interesting-long-term-study-of/#comment-547719 Let me be more specific and clear: The genus Apis = the honey bees icluding dozens of species. Of these many many species of honey bees only a couple of species sting. When I said “only stinging” I was thinking only of Africa and South America and thought the cliff-honey bees of Asia were the same species as the honey be, but I was wrong. So it turns out that there are a few stinging honey bee species.

Halictidae are not honey bees. And they don’t sting much either, but yes, they have a little bit of a sting.

]]> By: rx1 https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/10/05/interesting-long-term-study-of/#comment-547718 Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:36:36 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/10/05/interesting-long-term-study-of/#comment-547718 I still don’t understand the ‘only stinging bee’ statement.

]]> By: Sean https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/10/05/interesting-long-term-study-of/#comment-547717 Wed, 07 Oct 2009 08:32:00 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/10/05/interesting-long-term-study-of/#comment-547717 @Jason
He means the only stinging social bee. And of course he is quite right, bumblebees are social and they do sting. There are even some bumblebees in South America.

]]> By: Jim Thomerson https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/10/05/interesting-long-term-study-of/#comment-547716 Tue, 06 Oct 2009 16:43:28 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/10/05/interesting-long-term-study-of/#comment-547716 If we are talking about a study done in the Yucatan, we are not talking South America. Are there similar studies done in South America?

As a child in Texas, we kept honey bees, and I occasionally got stung with an unpleasant swelling and itch reaction which would last several days. Many years later, I got stung twice in one day by killer bees in Venezuela. One, working rotting mangos in the yard, got up my pants leg. Later that day we seined in a creek where a swarm had settled under the bridge. We made it back to the car with my friend getting a few stings. One bee made it in to the car and stung me whilst I was kiling it with my thumb. Neither sting amounted to much, compared with my youthful experience. We did encounter a killer bee swarm on another occasion, but understood what it was and did not approach. They have killed several people in Venezuela.

]]> By: Jason https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/10/05/interesting-long-term-study-of/#comment-547715 Tue, 06 Oct 2009 14:55:24 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/10/05/interesting-long-term-study-of/#comment-547715 I still don’t understand the ‘only stinging bee’ statement. I’ve been stung by Halictidae which are certainly bees… wait you meant ‘not the only’ didn’t you?

]]> By: Greg Laden https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/10/05/interesting-long-term-study-of/#comment-547714 Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:27:21 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/10/05/interesting-long-term-study-of/#comment-547714 Ok, I was thinking only of African and South American bees when I said that only the honey bee stung. I extrapolated to Asia. I had not realized that the giant cliff stinging honey be of asia was a different species, but indeed it is (and there are actually two or three closely related species of giant asian stinging honeybee).

The bumble/humble bee is, BTW (since this may occur to some people) in a different genus. (and they are not suicidal stingers)

]]> By: CSVOY https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/10/05/interesting-long-term-study-of/#comment-547713 Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:16:50 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/10/05/interesting-long-term-study-of/#comment-547713 Africanized bees are not very good news.
They are a substantial threat to the chicks of birds nesting in cavities, including some that are extremely endangered such as the Blue-throated Macaws (Ara glaucogularis).

]]> By: MadScientist https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/10/05/interesting-long-term-study-of/#comment-547712 Tue, 06 Oct 2009 01:14:05 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/10/05/interesting-long-term-study-of/#comment-547712 “Other bees neither stink nor make huge hives”

I’ve never encountered a bee that stunk although I’ve only been familiar with fewer than 10 types of bees.

So, this beesness about the “killer bees” is really just a load of beegotry and breeding in an African variety was a good thing?

]]> By: Sean https://gregladen.com/blog/2009/10/05/interesting-long-term-study-of/#comment-547711 Mon, 05 Oct 2009 22:32:24 +0000 http://scienceblogs.com/gregladen/2009/10/05/interesting-long-term-study-of/#comment-547711 “Apis mellifera, the ‘honey bee,’ is the only stinging bee”
is only true if you state that it is the only stinging social bee in the Americas. Asia of course has other stinging Apis, including the formidable Apis dorsata.
Sorry, I cannot seem to make my binomials italics.

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