A Spotlight on the Egyptian Honeybee (Apis mellifera lamarckii)

Hesham R El-Seedi^{1

2

3

4}, Aida A Abd El-Wahed⁵, Chao Zhao⁶, Aamer Saeed⁷, Xiaobo Zou⁸, Zhiming Guo⁸, Ahmed G Hegazi⁹, Awad A Shehata^{10

11

12}, Haged H R El-Seedi¹³, Ahmed F Algethami¹⁴, Yahya Al Naggar¹⁵, Neveen F Agamy¹⁶, Mostafa E Rateb¹⁷, Mohamed F A Ramadan¹⁸, Shaden A M Khalifa¹⁹, Kai Wang²⁰

Affiliations

¹ International Research Center for Food Nutrition and Safety, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China.
² Pharmacognosy Group, Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Biomedical Centre, Uppsala University, P.O. Box 591, SE-751 24 Uppsala, Sweden.
³ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Menoufia University, Shebin El-Koom 32512, Egypt.
⁴ International Joint Research Laboratory of Intelligent Agriculture and Agri-Products Processing, Jiangsu Education Department, Nanjing 210024, China.
⁵ Department of Bee Research, Plant Protection Research Institute, Agricultural Research Centre, Giza 12627, Egypt.
⁶ College of Marine Sciences, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China.
⁷ Department of Chemistry, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan.
⁸ School of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China.
⁹ Zoonotic Diseases Department, National Research Centre, Giza 12622, Egypt.
¹⁰ Avian and Rabbit Diseases Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sadat City, Menoufia 22857, Egypt.
¹¹ PerNaturam GmbH, An der Trift 8, 56290 Gödenroth, Germany.
¹² Prophy-Institute for Applied Prophylaxis, 59159 Bönen, Germany.
¹³ Faculty of Medicine, Riga Stradins University (RSU), LV-1007 Riga, Latvia.
¹⁴ Alnahal Aljwal Foundation Saudi Arabia, P.O. Box 617, Makkah 24211, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁵ Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Tanta 31527, Egypt.
¹⁶ Nutrition Department, Food Analysis Division, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21561, Egypt.
¹⁷ School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley PA1 2BE, UK.
¹⁸ Central Agriculture Pesticides Laboratory, Pesticide Analysis Research Department, Agriculture Research Center, Giza 24221, Egypt.
¹⁹ Department of Molecular Biosciences, The Wenner-Gren Institute, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
²⁰ Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.

PMID: 36290135
PMCID: PMC9597722
DOI: 10.3390/ani12202749

Review

A Spotlight on the Egyptian Honeybee (Apis mellifera lamarckii)

Hesham R El-Seedi et al. Animals (Basel). 2022.

. 2022 Oct 13;12(20):2749.

doi: 10.3390/ani12202749.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ International Research Center for Food Nutrition and Safety, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China.
² Pharmacognosy Group, Department of Pharmaceutical Biosciences, Biomedical Centre, Uppsala University, P.O. Box 591, SE-751 24 Uppsala, Sweden.
³ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Menoufia University, Shebin El-Koom 32512, Egypt.
⁴ International Joint Research Laboratory of Intelligent Agriculture and Agri-Products Processing, Jiangsu Education Department, Nanjing 210024, China.
⁵ Department of Bee Research, Plant Protection Research Institute, Agricultural Research Centre, Giza 12627, Egypt.
⁶ College of Marine Sciences, Fujian Agriculture and Forestry University, Fuzhou 350002, China.
⁷ Department of Chemistry, Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad 45320, Pakistan.
⁸ School of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang 212013, China.
⁹ Zoonotic Diseases Department, National Research Centre, Giza 12622, Egypt.
¹⁰ Avian and Rabbit Diseases Department, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Sadat City, Menoufia 22857, Egypt.
¹¹ PerNaturam GmbH, An der Trift 8, 56290 Gödenroth, Germany.
¹² Prophy-Institute for Applied Prophylaxis, 59159 Bönen, Germany.
¹³ Faculty of Medicine, Riga Stradins University (RSU), LV-1007 Riga, Latvia.
¹⁴ Alnahal Aljwal Foundation Saudi Arabia, P.O. Box 617, Makkah 24211, Saudi Arabia.
¹⁵ Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Tanta University, Tanta 31527, Egypt.
¹⁶ Nutrition Department, Food Analysis Division, High Institute of Public Health, Alexandria University, Alexandria 21561, Egypt.
¹⁷ School of Computing, Engineering and Physical Sciences, University of the West of Scotland, Paisley PA1 2BE, UK.
¹⁸ Central Agriculture Pesticides Laboratory, Pesticide Analysis Research Department, Agriculture Research Center, Giza 24221, Egypt.
¹⁹ Department of Molecular Biosciences, The Wenner-Gren Institute, Stockholm University, SE-106 91 Stockholm, Sweden.
²⁰ Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.

PMID: 36290135
PMCID: PMC9597722
DOI: 10.3390/ani12202749

Abstract

Egypt has an ongoing long history with beekeeping, which started with the ancient Egyptians making various reliefs and inscriptions of beekeeping on their tombs and temples. The Egyptian honeybee (Apis mellifera lamarckii) is an authentic Egyptian honeybee subspecies utilized in apiculture. A. m. lamarckii is a distinct honeybee subspecies that has a particular body color, size, and high levels of hygienic behavior. Additionally, it has distinctive characteristics; including the presence of the half-queens, an excessive number of swarm cells, high adaptability to climatic conditions, good resistance to specific bee diseases, including the Varro disorder, and continuous breeding during the whole year despite low productivity, using very little propolis, and tending to abscond readily. This review discusses the history of beekeeping in Egypt and its current situation in addition to its morphology, genetic analysis, and distinctive characters, and the defensive behaviors of native A. m. lamarckii subspecies.

Keywords: Egyptian honeybee (Apis mellifera lamarckii); beehives; beekeeping; defensive behaviors; genetic analysis.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

**Figure 1**
Honey combs gathering from large horizontal hives in Rekhmira tomb.

**Figure 2**
Beekeeping reliefs from the tomb of Pabasa and Karnak Temple (Photography by Aida Abd El-Wahed).

**Figure 3**
The Egyptian mud traditional hives (A1–A3) and modern ones (B). (Photo A1–A3: Dahy M. Mostafa and used with permission).

**Figure 4**
Beehives stocks in Egypt within the period (1961–2020) according to FAO (Data source: www.fao.org/faostat/en/#data/QCL, accessed on 29 July 2022).

See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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1. Kuropatnicki A.K., Kłósek M., Kucharzewski M. Honey as medicine: Historical perspectives. J. Apic. Res. 2018;57:113–118. doi: 10.1080/00218839.2017.1411182. - DOI
1. Sheppard W.S., Shoukry A.K.S. The Nile honey bee—The bee of ancient Egypt in modern times. Am. Bee J. 2001;14:260–263.
1. Abushady A.Z. The Hive and the Honey Bee. Dadant & Sons; Hamilton, NY, USA: 1949. Races of bees; pp. 11–20.
1. Abdullah I., Gary S.R., Marla S. Field trial of honey bee colonies bred for mechanisms of resistance against Varroa destructor. Apidologie. 2007;38:67–76. doi: 10.1051/apido. - DOI

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A Spotlight on the Egyptian Honeybee (Apis mellifera lamarckii)

Affiliations

A Spotlight on the Egyptian Honeybee (Apis mellifera lamarckii)

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Figures

References

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources

Full Text Sources