''Apis mellifera intermissa'' is an African

subspecies In Taxonomy (biology), biological classification, subspecies (: subspecies) is a rank below species, used for populations that live in different areas and vary in size, shape, or other physical characteristics (Morphology (biology), morpholog ...

of the

western honey bee The western honey bee or European honey bee (''Apis mellifera'') is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bees worldwide. The genus name ''Apis'' is Latin for 'bee', and ''mellifera'' is the Latin for 'honey-bearing' or 'honey-carrying', ...

Description

Previously classified as ''A. m.intermissa v. Buttel-Reepen'' a reviewed classification of genus instead states the sub-species as ''A. m. intermissa v. Maa'' (''M. S. Engel'' 1999) Found in the south of Spain D. R. Smith, M. F. Palopoli, B. R. Taylor, L. Garnery, J.-M. Cornuet, M. Solignac, W. M. Brown and the (''

Maghreb The Maghreb (; ), also known as the Arab Maghreb () and Northwest Africa, is the western part of the Arab world. The region comprises western and central North Africa, including Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, and Tunisia. The Maghreb al ...

'') north of the Sahara desert in Africa, ranging from the east (Libya) to the west (Morocco), and is adapted to dry climates. This bee has a black-brown and orange striated abdomen and black-brown thorax with orange fur.

Taxonomy

In a comparative study of five subspecies and ''A. m. iberica'' (Smith, Palopoli, Taylor, Garnery, Cornuet, Solignac, Brown 1991) cleavage maps obtained through the use of

restriction enzyme A restriction enzyme, restriction endonuclease, REase, ENase or'' restrictase '' is an enzyme that cleaves DNA into fragments at or near specific recognition sites within molecules known as restriction sites. Restriction enzymes are one class o ...

s showed that the Spanish honey bee contains

mtDNA Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA and mDNA) is the DNA located in the mitochondria organelles in a eukaryotic cell that converts chemical energy from food into adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial DNA is a small portion of the DNA contained in ...

(mitochondrial DNA) similar to ''intermissa'' and also ''mellifera''. Additionally, ''A. m. intermissa'' belongs to a group shown by experiment to have similar mtDNA, this including ''monticola'', ''scuttelata'', ''adansonii'' and ''capensis'' In Spanish honey bee populations, mtDNA haplotypes of African bee strains were found to be frequently present (Smith 1991, Garnery ''et al'' 1995) (Cornuet ''et al'' 1975, 1978, 1982, 1988; Ruttner 1988; Cornuet and Fresnaye 1989; Orante-Bermejos and Garcia-Fernandez 1995; Hepburn and Radloff 1996). Migrating honey bee populations formed the original colonies of honey bees in western Europe, landing to eventually populate the continent from Africa across the

Straits of Gibraltar The Strait of Gibraltar is a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea and separates Europe from Africa. The two continents are separated by 7.7 nautical miles (14.2 kilometers, 8.9 miles) at its narrowest point. Fe ...

.Pierre Franck, Lionel Garnery, Michel Solignac and Jean-Marie Cornuet (1997
JSTOR
''The Origin of West European Subspecies of Honeybees (Apis mellifera): New Insights from Microsatellite and Mitochondrial Data'' EvolutionVol. 52, No. 4 (Aug., 1998), pp. 1119-1134 (article consists of 16 pages) Published by: Society for the Study of Evolution etrieved 2011-12-22/ref>

References

External links

{{Taxonbar, from=Q2858325 mellifera intermissa Western honey bee breeds Hymenoptera of Africa Hymenoptera of Europe Insects of North Africa

Description

Taxonomy

See also

References

External links