The Research on The Bee Resources

Transcription

1 The Research on The Bee Resources of Tibet -M-. Ken Zaijing Sun Qingliai Ren Xuehui Institute of Apicultural Research, Chinese- Ac-ad emy of Agricultural Sciences Xiangshan, Beijing, China Int./ ocluc I i on Tibet is situated in soulhwest part of China with tolal area of 120 sguare Kilometers. It is the main body of Qiii - Zang Plateau with average elevation over 4000 meters. Tibet has some huge mountains. Ximalaya mountains in south ; Kunlun Mountains and Tonggula Mountains in north ; Hengduan Mountains in east;gandis Mountains and Nianqinlonggii la Mountains cross Tibet in the middle form west to east. Yaluzangbu River passes though' south Tibet. Rivers Jinsha, Lanchang and in'u are in East Tibet. There are also lots of Lake.', in the plateau. So Tibet has many kinds of landforms, such as. plateau, moun t ai n land, g I ac i er, dcser t, lake basin,meadow, canyon, etc. Tibet can be divided into four parts. north Tibet, plateau, south Tibet valley floor, Xiraalaya Mountain Area and East Tibet canyou area. The varied topography, latiude and elevation form climate diversity of Tibet audit has ali five zones :tropical, subtropical, temperate, boreal and frigid zones. Different ecological types and vegetation exist in Tibet and Tibet has abundant nectar plants. There are abundant! honeybee resourese in south,, southeast and east parts of Tibet. Honeybee Resources c^_la-5l? P^bricius. According to the morn.home t r i c o'f samples from Cuona County, they are similar to CJiinese honeybee in south China, body color grey-yei low, worker bees with light pubesceuce in thorax, 2 3' yellow rings in abdomen and a dark yellow ring in the joint between thorax and abdomen.body length {2 4mm, thorax width 3 --4mm, wing stretch mm, tongue length mm, right fore wing mm, cubi ta I index S width of post margin of slernite 4. 4inra ; 8 setae in pollen brush with the 2nd seta near the ''rd seta. AEJLS_ c_er_ana ma in ly

2 valley of Yaluzangbu River, Shan Jiang valley in oast Tibet and Chayu County in southeast Tibet, with the elevation lower then 3300 meters. Most Apj_s cer_a_na colonies are fp.ral and build their nest in tree holes, cavities in mountain arid wall of houses. Management technique for men kept colonies is disadvaneed; most of them kept in wood tubs., some even kept in wall holes of house and honey yield rather low, about 3-^-6 kg per tub a year. 2- Apjj; \ -S?l* s smjth* The biggest honey bee species of the world. Body length 17^-]8nn, no clear sifference of body size among worker, drone and queen bees. Body black, abdomen dark brown, white pubesecence rings among abdonen segments, forewing brown. Flagellum of antenna with the 1st subsegment much longer than the 3rd1 one and froa 3rd to 10th subsegment the length of each subsegment bigger than its width. AJUJ> loboriosa mainly distribute in the south slope of Xiwalaya Mountains. Longjiao, Chola, Yadong and Bito County; the sharp turn area of Yaluzangbu Rivrer. Bond, Linzhi and Mi tin County; Chayi County, southeast Tibet, with elevation lower than 3300m. This species is a feral species and builds its nests (one comb nest) on cliffs some tens to one hundred meters above the ground. Apis luj^^i^sj* is fierce, easy to migrateand good at collecting nectar. Local people distroy tilt nests and extract honey, usually 40-60kg per colony. 1 Ajpis d_orsat_a Fabricius» Body length 16 vl?i»in, next only to Apis Jojiori osa, mainly distributes in Chayi County, with elevation lower than 3000ffl. They build their nests (one comb nest) in tall treies in broad leave forest. Behavior and foraging capability simitar fo those of Apis loboriosa. 4. Ap i.v mellifera L.. Linzhi County introduced this speeies to orchards in 1975 and developed a few colonies. But, soon these coloies collapsed due to the bad management. Because of traffic, migratory beekeeping to Ti-bet is very difficult. So there are few Ap i' ; m e U i f e r a colonies in T e b i t. Evaluation of Honeybee Resorce 1. Among all (i honey bee species 4 species distribute in Tibet. 2. Wild honeybee resources are.abundant.

3 3. Thfi distribution is not balanced, mainly in south, easl and southeast parts (.with lower elevation). 4. Management technigue is disadvanced, only a few movable frame-hive kept colonies in Bomi County and Chayi County; most kept colonies are in wood tubs. Suggestion for Development 1. Reform management terhnigne for Ap i s cerana colonies, replace wood tubs with movable -frame hives, hive the feral colonies, and set up experiment station in Linzhi or Changdu, Tibet. 2. Introduce Api? mellife^ra colorlies, and set up experiment station in Linzhi or Changdu, Tibet. sharp 3. Train beekeeping technicians for Tibet. i 4. Set up preservation area for Ap_rs lobor iosa colonies in the turn area of Valuzangbu River.. Re f erence (1) Tibet crop resources investigation team, 1987, Symposium of Tibet crop resouces investigation. Chiniese Agricutural Sciences press. " (2) Ren Zaijing and Suu Qinghai, 1986, On honeybee resources of Tibet, Chinese Apiculture, 5. (3) Kuang Bonyu, et al, 1986, The spacies of genus Apis in China, Chinese Apiculture,! 5. :-;'.: : ' I -

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