Ecology, Behaviour and Control of Apis cerana with a Focus on Relevance to the Australian Incursion

Abstract

Apis cerana Fabricius is endemic to most of Asia, where it has been used for
honey production and pollination services for thousands of years. Since the 1980s, A. cerana
has been introduced to areas outside its natural range (namely New Guinea, the Solomon
Islands, and Australia), which sparked fears that it may become a pest species that could
compete with, and negatively affect, native Australian fauna and flora, as well as commercially
kept A. mellifera and commercial crops. This literature review is a response to these
concerns and reviews what is known about the ecology and behaviour of A. cerana.
Differences between temperate and tropical strains of A. cerana are reviewed, as are A. cerana
pollination, competition between A. cerana and A. mellifera, and the impact and control
strategies of introduced A. cerana, with a particular focus on gaps of current knowledge.