Study Reveals Differences in Behavioral Maturation of Tropical Asian Honey Bees

A study led by Sruthi Unnikrishnan at the Centre for Wildlife Studies (CWS) has revealed differences in behavioral maturation between two tropical Asian honey bee species, Apis florea and Apis cerana, showing that A. cerana workers transition more rapidly and uniformly from nest duties to foraging. The findings suggest that faster development is linked to cavity-nesting behavior and represents a derived evolutionary trait.

Researchers found that hormonal and molecular signals triggering foraging were largely similar in both species and mirrored those in the well-studied European honey bee, Apis mellifera, indicating conserved regulatory mechanisms across honey bee lineages. However, vitellogenin, a protein associated with nurse bee status and behavioral regulation in A. mellifera, did not show expected patterns—A. florea workers maintained significantly higher levels than A. cerana across all tests.

The study underscores the importance of Asian honey bees in tropical pollination systems and calls for increased research focus on native species critical to India’s food security and biodiversity. Co-author Axel Brockmann of the National Centre for Biological Sciences emphasized that such comparative studies can inform how honey bees may adapt to environmental and climate changes.

The research, published May 10, 2026, in a peer-reviewed journal, was co-authored by Deepika Bais, Ashwin Suryanarayanan, and Aridni Shah. The team plans to expand comparative analyses to additional Apis species to better understand the evolution of social organization in bees.