Common name : Honey Bee
Latin: Apis mellifera Family: Apis
Location: Wicklow, Greystones, Delgany
Note: Found throughout all areas,
Wildlife notes: Found on Weld*, Dandelion*,
Description:
Native honey bee population disappearing what is the dept of agriculture doing about it? It is their responsibility to stop killing our insects with toxic chemicals and loss of habitat for Cap payments. Dairy farming has increased by some 30% since 2015 the department of agriculture is actually creating food insecurity by creating devastating biodiverse collapse throughout Ireland and poisioning all our ground water and rivers with agro runoff. Farmers need to be paid to set aside land for nature on their farms and we need to move away from the green grass concept to mixed seed grass better for cows and our bees. But fundamentally the herd has to decrease by 50% over the next 20 years and farmers compensated to transition into different forms of agriculture.
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Reseach into Irish native population of honey bees
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325016150_A_significant_pure_population_of_the_dark_European_honey_bee_Apis_mellifera_mellifera_remains_in_Ireland
The western honey bee or European honey bee (Apis mellifera) is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bees worldwide. The genus name Apis is Latin for “bee”, and mellifera is the Latin for “honey-bearing”, referring to the species’ production of honey.
Like all honey bee species, the western honey bee is eusocial, creating colonies with a single fertile female (or “queen“), many normally non-reproductive females or “workers”, and a small proportion of fertile males or “drones“. Individual colonies can house tens of thousands of bees. Colony activities are organized by complex communication between individuals, through both pheromones and the dance language.
The western honey bee was one of the first domesticated insects, and it is the primary species maintained by beekeepers to this day for both its honey production and pollination activities. With human assistance, the western honey bee now occupies every continent except Antarctica. Western honey bees are threatened by pests and diseases, especially the Varroa mite and colony collapse disorder. As of 2019, the western honey bee is listed as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List, as numerous studies indicate that the species has undergone significant declines in Europe; however, it is not clear if they refer to population reduction of wild or managed colonies. Further research is required to enable differentiation between wild and non-wild colonies in order to determine the conservation status of the species in the wild.
Western honey bees are an important model organism in scientific studies, particularly in the fields of social evolution, learning, and memory; they are also used in studies of pesticide toxicity, to assess non-target impacts of commercial pesticides.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_honey_bee
