Sunday, July 15, 2012

apis mellifera mellifera

Yeah, I didn't get it either. "apis mellifera mellifera" is a breed of honeybee called the "British Black," long thought to be extinct.But such is not the case.

from The Daily Mail



The Daily Mail is reporting that the "extinct" bee has been discovered living in Whitfield’s Holy Trinity Church in Northumberland. The bee is one of the varieties that was native to the British Isles after the last ice age, but was thought, like 90% of bees in the UK, to have become extinct after being infected with Spanish flu in 1919.
Conservation officer for the Bee Improvement and Bee Breeders’ Association Dorian Pritchard, was called in to help.
He said: ‘They are generally a lot darker than the European bee with pale thin strips across the abdomen. It takes a specialist bee keeper to recognise them. ‘These bees were the native bees in Britain after the Ice Age but in the 1830s we started to import foreign bees. ‘An epidemic wiped out 90 per cent of the population after the First World War.’
So, longish Daily Mail story short; bee, thought extinct, recognized by highly observant bee conservation officer Dorian Pritchard. Bees moved out of church and into hives. Prognosis good. World generally a better place.
Right. Just so I'm not always doom and gloom.

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