ABSTRACT
The distribution of the honeybee Apis andreniformis in West Sumatra, Indonesia, was recorded in the 1980s from the lowlands of Padang Sarai to the highlands of Lubuk Gadang in primary and secondary forests, plantations, agricultural areas and open areas. Its main nesting plants are cacao, palm oil, coconut, durian and cloves in the lowlands and coffee, cinnamon and cacao in the highlands. Although nests of A. andreniformis are in open areas, the nesting trees are covered by a canopy of taller trees. The height of A. andreniformis nests ranges from 1 to 13 m above the ground. All nesting trees have many branches and twigs, and many have compound leaves thickly clustered at the end of the branches. A. andreniformis has priority status in Indonesia because of habitat loss and declining populations since 2011. Analyses of the COI gene sequence indicate low genetic variation among five colonies of A. andreniformis from West Sumatra. In the maximum-likelihood tree, Sumatran A. andreniformis dwarf bees cluster separately from populations from Nepal and China. In addition, variations exist in exon 4 and intron 5 of the PFK gene, suggesting that it has potential as a marker to differentiate among A. andreniformis populations.
