ABSTRACT
The honeybee Apis dorsata is well distributed across southern Asia, comprising both plains and hilly regions of up to 1,600 m above mean sea level. Worker bees of these species are about 17–20 mm long. The queens are usually darker in colour in contrast to the workers, which are usually yellow in colour. A. dorsata builds single large-sized vertical arboreal nests on suitable natural and manmade structures. They tend to nest high in the air, usually from 3–60 m above the ground. Congregation of A. dorsata colonies is quite common and the number varies from 50–200 on a tree or rock where the bee forage sources are quite abundant. Its combs are 1–2 m long and 0.5–1.0 m height. Similarly, the thickness of the comb cells was varied, and the size of the worker, drone and honeycomb cells was found to be 3.3 cm, 3.7 cm and 19 cm, respectively. The colonies of A. dorsata perform short periodic mass flights of up to six times in a day. They respond to disturbance by their enemies with a characteristic defence body twist—while the thorax rotates, the head lowered and the abdomen and wings are thrust upwards.
