Studies on the Japanese honeybee, Apis cerana japonica Radoszkowski - bionomics and evaluation as genetic resources -

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Keeping system of the Japanese honeybee, Apis cerana japonica(Acj), especially queen rearing with plastic cell cup was established. Since Acj queen could not be produced on A. mellifera (Am) royal jelly in laboratory rearing, chemical components of royal jelly from the two species seemed to be different. Instrumental insemination of Acj queen was also succeeded. Mating flight time of the two species was chronologically isolated: 13:30-14:30 for Am and 14:45-16:00 for Acj. Similar patterns of seasonal foraging activities were observed in the two species kept in the same apiary. Microscopical analysis of pollen loads suggested that the preference of pollen-source flower was slightly different in the two species. Diversity of pollen-source flowers was higher in Am, while inter-colony variation was also seen in the two species. "Dialect curve", the relation between dance tempo and foraging distance of Acj resembled to that of Am later than that of tropical subspecies of the own species. Seventy percentile of the foraging distance estimated from the dialect curve was 22km for Acj and 3km for Am. Slow tail-waggling dance was often performed prior to absconding. Acj evolved intelligent defensive strategy against attack by Vespa spp.