Apis cerana
Fabricius, 1793 · speciesAt a glance
Sources12 archives
Databases and archives Apis cerana's data was compiled from.
WikipediaWikimedia Foundation17 languages↗
BioWikiNetmultilingual Wikipediamultilingual↗
GBIFGlobal Biodiversity Information Facility16 347 records↗
ENAEuropean Nucleotide Archive · EMBL-EBI1 704 eDNA detections↗
BOLD SystemsCentre for Biodiversity Genomics1 635 specimens↗
LOTUSNatural Products (Wikidata)compounds↗
NPASSNat. Product Activity & Species Sourcecompounds↗
Open Tree of LifeOpenTreephylogeny backbone↗
GoaTGenomes on a Tree · Sangergenome & karyotype↗
NCBIUS National Library of Medicinegenome & karyotype↗
Tree of SexTree of Sex Consortiumgenome & karyotype↗
GLoBIGlobal Biotic Interactionsbiotic interactions↗Every layer below draws on the sources above — open one to explore it, or use ← → to move between tabs.
Apis cerana nuluensis is a subspecies of honey bee described in 1996 by Tingek, Koeniger & Koeniger. The geographic distribution of the subspecies is the southeastern Asian island of Borneo, politically divided between Indonesia, Malaysia, and Brunei. A. c. nuluensis is one of a number of Indonesian honey bees, including the more obscure Apis koschevnikovi and Apis nigrocincta (the latter of which has nearby habitat on nearby Sulawesi and Mindanao islands) While this was originally described as a species,Tingek S., Koeniger N., Koeniger G. (1996) Description of a new cavity-dwelling species of Apis (Apis nuluensis) from Sabah, Borneo with notes on its occurrence and reproductive biology (Hymenoptera, Apoidea, Apini), Senckenbergiana Biol. 76, 115–119.Fuchs S., Koeniger N., Tingek S. (1996) The morphometric position of A. nuluensis (Tingek, Koeniger and Koeniger) within cavity-nesting honey bees, Apidologie 27, 397–406.Arias M.S., Tingek S., Kelitu A., Sheppard W.S. (1996) Apis nuluensis Tingek, Koeniger and Koeniger, 1996 and its genetic relationship with sympatric species inferred from DNA sequences, Apidologie 27, 415–422. it has since been classified as a geographic race (subspecies) of the widespread A. cerana.Engel, M.S. (1999) The taxonomy of recent and fossil honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Apis). Journal of Hymenoptera Research 8: 165-196. Molecular evidence suggests it is divergent enough in its DNA sequences to potentially represent a biological species,(2005): Phylogenetic relationships of honey bees (Hymenoptera:Apinae:Apini) inferred from nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequence data. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 37(1): 25–35. . Erratum in Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution 40(1): 315. but there has been no formal reassignment to date, and no hybridization studies have been performed to confirm this hypothesis. The island of Borneo, habitat of A. nuluensis Like many honey bees, A. c. nuluensis is liable to infestation by the parasitic Varroa mite, although in this case the particular species is Varroa underwoodi (in this aspect, A. c. nuluensis is similar to A. nigrocincta).
No narrative description available for this taxon yet.
Size & morphology2
Compounds documented for Apis cerana across natural-product and food-composition databases — not just the ~150 nutrients on a classic label ("nutritional dark matter").
Compound class profile5 classes
Documented compounds63 total
| Compound | Class | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| (+)-Kobusin | present | NPASS | |
| 5-Phosphoribosylamine | present | NPASS | |
| 6-Hydroxy-15-methyl-16-propan-2-yl-3,14-dioxa-11-azapentacyclo[7.5.1.12,5.01,11.06,15]hexadecan-4-one | present | NPASS | |
| Acetylcholine | present | NPASS | |
| CDAISMWEOUEBRE-MAQROVEYSA-N | present | NPASS | |
| Chiro-Inositol | present | NPASS | |
| Clitidine | present | NPASS | |
| COMTYGQAMQKQCJ-UHFFFAOYSA-N | present | NPASS | |
| CZMRCDWAGMRECN-FXFGBNHJSA-N | present | NPASS | |
| D-Glucose | present | NPASS |
A DNA barcode is a short, standardised stretch of genes that works like a fingerprint — enough to tell one species from another. Below is the molecular trace Apis cerana has left across the world's sequence archives.
At a glance
★ the standard DNA barcode for this group — the short region actually read to tell this species apart. The rest are extra genes sequenced along the way.
Besides the big genome in the nucleus, cells carry a small, circular loop of DNA inside the cell's energy factories — the mitochondria. It is inherited almost only from the mother and is a leftover from ancient bacteria that moved into the cell. The mitochondrial markers above (ND*, COX, CYTB…) are read from exactly this loop. Outer ring = one strand, inner ring = the other.
The complete instruction manual Apis cerana carries — its genome. We read it from three angles — how big it is, how the DNA is packed into chromosomes, and how completely it has been sequenced — and explain how to read each value as you go.
Genome sizehow big the whole instruction manual is
Measured in base pairs (bp) — the individual letters of DNA (human ≈ 3.2 Gb, a bacterium a few million). The chart places this genome on a logarithmic scale — each step to the right is ten times bigger — among reference organisms. Across species a bigger genome loosely tracks with larger cells, slower growth and lower-energy lifestyles (powered flight favours small genomes) — yet it does not imply more genes or a more advanced organism (the long-standing C-value paradox).
Chromosomes & ploidyhow the DNA is packaged
2n is the full chromosome count in a normal body cell; n is a gamete (egg or sperm), which carries half. Ploidy is how many complete chromosome sets each cell holds — 2× (diploid) is typical for animals, while higher levels (polyploidy) are common in plants. Click any value below to see the underlying records and sources.
2n 327×GoaT · Animal Chromosome Counts Database · GoaT · Tree of Sex Database · GoaT · Bee Chromosome Database +1
2n 161×GoaT · Tree of Sex Database
Sequencing statusassembly quality — how far to trust these numbers
Assembly level tells you how finished the sequence is — from fragmented contigs, through scaffolds, up to a full chromosome-level assembly. BUSCO % estimates completeness: the share of genes expected to be present that were actually found. These describe the data quality, not the organism.
How far back this lineage goes — and how we know. Everything here is measured in Ma, short for “mega-annum”: millions of years ago. The chart reads left to right like a calendar of the Earth, from the deep past on the left to today at the right edgetop to bottom like a core drilled through the Earth, from the deep past at the top down to today at the bottom.
At a glance
When this lineage existed
How to read this: the coloured strip along the bottomdown the left is the geological calendar — the standard epochs (Pliocene, Pleistocene…) every museum uses, shown so you can see which chapter of Earth's history this lineage lived in. This lineage is a young one, so the strip is zoomed in to epochs — the finer subdivisions inside a period. The orange marker is the DNA clock: DNA accumulates mutations at a roughly steady rate, so comparing this species' DNA with its relatives estimates when the lineage split off — independently of any fossil.
Record type16 347 records
Range
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Museum / Voucheredphysical evidence
Backed by a physical specimen — a herbarium sheet, sample or voucher held in a collection. “Vouchered” means supported by material evidence, not just an observation.
Wildobservation + sensor
Human sightings and records, or camera-trap / sensor detections — someone (or a device) saw or captured the species in the wild.
Holding institutions15 of 28 geolocated
Institutions and collections holding physical, vouchered specimens of this species — click a row to fly to it on the map.
| Institution | Specimens |
|---|---|
| Wuzhou, CN | 947 |
| Sanda, JP | 98 |
| Washington, US | 75 |
| Sam Noble Oklahoma Museum of Natural Historylocation not on record | 63 |
| New Haven, US | 51 |
| KCMNlocation not on record | 23 |
| Kerala Agricultural Universitylocation not on record | 21 |
| 19 | |
| Cambridge, US | 14 |
| Nagatoro-machi, Chichibu-gun, JP | 12 |
| NSMKlocation not on record | 8 |
| Colorado State Universitylocation not on record | 7 |
| Champaign, US | 7 |
| Sydney, AU | 7 |
| Toronto, CA | 6 |
| Paris, FR | 5 |
| DPIlocation not on record | 5 |
| HUNMlocation not on record | 4 |
| MJINlocation not on record | 4 |
| National Biodiversity Centre, Bhutanlocation not on record | 2 |
| Chiba, JP | 2 |
| University Park, US | 2 |
| OSUClocation not on record | 1 |
| Awka, NG | 1 |
| KNAMlocation not on record | 1 |
| Kawasaki Shi Tama Ku, JP | 1 |
| Gujarat State Biotechnology Missionlocation not on record | 1 |
| Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallerylocation not on record | 1 |
Where the DNA of Apis cerana was picked up in samples of water, soil or air — nobody saw the organism, only its DNA left behind. A trace is a clue that the species was near, not a confirmed sighting.
Signal
Where its DNA was found
How strong is each trace?
Modelled climatemodelled
How to read this: each dot is one detection of this species' DNA in an environmental sample. The confidence meter weighs how many independent studies and places back up the signal — one detection in one study is a hint; many across several studies is solid. Records dated before 2008 (when eDNA methods began) are treated as likely mislabeled and left off the map.