Africanized bees

Apidae. The aggressive behavior of the Africanized bee Apis mellifera scutelata, that constitutes a danger for man and domestic animals (Lavine and Carlson, 1987), raised the need to develop a method to rapidly distinguish scutelata from the European honeybee A. mellifera mellifera. Lavine et al. (1988, 1989, 1990) and Lavine and Vora (2005) showed that analysis of hydrocarbon patterns allowed discrimination of the two species and their hybrids. 

Africanized bees made their way north through South and Central America following an accidental release in Brazil in 1957. The bees entered North America in the early 1990 s and have come to reside in Texas, California, Louisiana, Arkansas, New Mexico, Mississippi, Alabama, and Florida. The massive number of stings these bees inflict can be fatal to both animals and humans, which is why they are also called killer bees. Varroa mites are the number one killer of honeybees worldwide and are one of the largest ectoparasites (parasites that live on the outside of the host). If this mite s size was considered on a human scale, it would as big as a basketball. 

Patrick, A., Roberts, L., Poonking, R, and Jeelal, V, 1987, Acute renal failure due to multiple stings by Africanized bees. Report of the 1st case in Trinidad. West Ind. Med. J. 36 43-44. 

Munoz-Arizpe, R., Valencia-Espinoza, L., Velazquez-Jones, L., Abarco-Franco, C., Gamboa-Marrufo, J., and Valencia-Mayoral, R, 1992, Africanized bee stings and pathogenesis of acute renal failure. Nephron 61 478. 

Mott, M. (2004). Bees, giant African rats used to snifFland mines. National Geographic News 10 February 2004. 

Lavine, B. K., Carlson, D. A., Henry, D. and Jurs, P. C. (1988). Taxonomy based on chemical constitution Differentiation of Africanized honey-bees from European honey-bees. J. Chemometrics, 2, 29-37. 

Africanized foragers from Central America Africanized foragers from Venezuela Africanized nest bees from Central America European foragers from Venezuela European foragers from Florida Total... 

Africanized nest bees from Central America... 

The potential anti-inflammatory properties of southern African soft coral metabolites were further exemplified by the isolation of five diterpene esters valdivones A (101), B (102), their corresponding methoxy ketals (103, 104) and dihydrovaldivone A (105) from Alcyonium valdivae (Family Alcyoniidae) collected off Coffee Bay on the warm temperate east coast of southern Africa (Figure 1) [94]. The structures of these compounds were determined from analysis of their 2D-NMR data with coupling constant analysis and nOe data providing the relative stereochemistry of 101 and 102. Valdivones A and B showed fairly strong inhibition of chemically-induced inflammation in the mouse ear assay (93% and 72% inhibition at 50 pg/ear respectively) but did not significantly inhibit bee venom phospholipase A2 (ca. 43% at 16 pgmL1) [94]. 

Other Western herbs that have been investigated for the treatment of BPH include pumpkin seeds (Cucurbita pepo), nettle root (Urtica dioica or Urtica urens), bee pollen (particularly that from the rye plant), African potato (tubers of Hypoxis rooperi), and the African tree Pygeum africanum, also known as Prunus africanum. In most cases, but particularly with pumpkin seeds and African potato, the main active components are sterols, such as p-sitosterol, which also has been used for BPH. 

The loss of one quarter of all managed honey bee colonies since 1990 signals one of the most severe declines US agriculture has ever experienced in such a short period. There are fewer bee hives in the US today than at any time in the past 50 years [12]. This demise has been brought about by the spread of diseases and parasitic mites, invasion of Africanized honey bees [12], climatic fluctuations, industrialization, and exposure to pesticides and other chemicals. Xenobiotics can either poison the bees... 

Blum, M.S. and Fales, H.M. (1988). Chemical releasers of alarm behavior in the honey bees informational plethora of the sting apparatus signal. In Africanized Honey Bees and Bee Mites (Needham, G.R., Page, R.E., Delfi-nado-Baker, M. and Bowman, C.E., Eds). Halsted Press, New York, pp. 141-148. 

Batra, S.W.T. (1988) Automatic image analysis for rapid identification of Africanized honey bees. In Africanized Honey Bees and Bee Mites (ed G.R. Needham), Ellis Horwood, Chichester, UK, pp. 260-263. Baylac, M., ViUemant, C. and Simbolotti, G. (2003) Combining geometric morphometries with pattern recognition for the investigation of species complexes. Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 80 89-98. 

In connection with the discussion about Africanized killer bees in America, it was interesting to compare metabolism and activity of the usual European honey-... 

Franca, F.O.S., Benvenutti, L.A., Fan, H.W., Dossantos, D.R., Hain, S.H., Picchi-martins, F.R., Cardoso, J.L.C., Kamiguti, A.S., Theakston, R.D., and Warrell, D.A., 1994, Severe and fatal mass attacks by killer bees (Africanized honeybees, Apis mellifera scutellata) in Brazil - Clinicopathological studies with measurements of serum venom concentrations. Quart. J. Med. 87 269-282. 

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