Conservation ecology of Japanese honey bee (Apis cerana japonica)

Japanese honeybee (Apis cerana japonica) is endemic to Japanese Archipelago except Northern Island Hokkaido and Southern Ryukyu Islands. Its major habitats are forests, but utilize a large variety of flowering plants of various habitats including open ones to provide ecosystem services including pollination of wild and crop plants and honey production. Although the species is likely to be one of the key species for regional conservation of biodiversity and ecological services, there is much insufficient scientific information on natural history and conservation ecological status of the species, especially for the population of the southernmost range. In order to identify conservation ecological problems of the species in a forest-dominant landscape of the moist subtropical zone, we investigated floral resource utilization, natural enemies, and reproductive behaviors of sexual castes for several natural colonies nesting in wood holes or a cavity of a stone tomb in or near subtropical forests in Amami Oshima Island.

 Seasonal floral resource utilization by the bee, which simultaneously means potential pollination services for flowering plants, was studied by the analysis of pollen collected with a special type of pollen traps at the entrances of the colony nests. The colonies were shown to utilize a variety flowering plant species of canopy layers and edges of the forests according to local flowering phenology of forest plants.