Prof Grace McCormack isolates a wild native Irish honey bee to be given a new home in a log hive on the University of Galway campus. Photograph: Mike Shaughnessy
Citizen scientists have already supported the recording of 541 nests of wild and native honeybees — Apis mellifera mellifera — but more data is needed, according to Prof Grace McCormack who is based at the University of Galway. This will be submitted to the National Biodiversity Data Centre and enhance understanding of the bees once thought to have been wiped out by the parasite Varroa destructor.
Black bees are smaller than a bumblebee. They are dark brown, almost black, with narrow or no bands on the abdomen and can be seen foraging in damp or drizzly weather. Free-living bee colonies are classed as having survived for more than two years in the wild — nesting outside a man-made hive/box. Wild honey bees are cavity dwellers and colonies can usually be found by observing the activity and noise of a large number of bees at a small entrance.
mellifera mellifera. This bee has taken 6,500 years to evolve to perfectly meet the demands of the Irish climate and it is in massive risk of extinction due to hybridisation as a result of imported non-native bees.”
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