<div dir="ltr">Dr Ren Zong-Xin is my research colleague at the Botanical Institute in Kunming. He has a particular interest in the pollination biology of traditional medicinal species as a large proportion of the species in the Chinese pharmacopeia are now in cultivation. Here are his recent thoughts and photos of beekeeping, Apis cerana, in his hometown. Please note that A. cerana is NOT a domesticated species in Yunnan, or any other part of China. Local people go into the forest and remove colonies of this species just as the Mayans in southern Mexico and Guatemala continue to remove colonies of Melipona. In Yunnan forests A. cerana appears to prefer to nest in oaks. Please look at the bee on the yellow brassica flowers. Considering the long antenna isn't that a drone or are we looking as some other, native, Eucera-like species? <div>
<br></div><div>It is my hope that Professor Ren will join NAPPC. He completed field and lab work on several Native American wildflowers while "post-docking" in my lab in 2013. <div><br></div><div>Peter <br><br>
<div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">任宗昕</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:renzongxin@mail.kib.ac.cn">renzongxin@mail.kib.ac.cn</a>></span><br>Date: Sun, Mar 9, 2014 at 9:20 PM<br>
Subject: Native honeybee in Yunnan<br>To: Peter Bernhardt <<a href="mailto:bernhap2@slu.edu">bernhap2@slu.edu</a>><br>Cc: "Robert A. Raguso" <<a href="mailto:rar229@cornell.edu">rar229@cornell.edu</a>>, Justin Zweck <<a href="mailto:jzweck@slu.edu">jzweck@slu.edu</a>>, Mike Arduser <<a href="mailto:Michael.Arduser@mdc.mo.gov">Michael.Arduser@mdc.mo.gov</a>>, Retha Meier <<a href="mailto:rmeier3@gmail.com">rmeier3@gmail.com</a>>, Peter Kevan <<a href="mailto:pkevan@uoguelph.ca">pkevan@uoguelph.ca</a>><br>
<br><br><br>Dear Prof. Bernhardt,<div><br></div><div>I took some photos of domesticated hives of native Chinese honeybee in my hometown, a small and peaceful village in Lijiang, northwestern Yunnan. In this area, I didn't find any common western honeybee. </div>
<div><br></div><div>The local native honeybee keepers locate their hives around the houses, usually in yard or in vegetable garden. In the first picture you can see four hives in a vegetable garden (some garlic and brassica), the hives are located in the hollow oak trunks and well rain/water protected. Plastic bag cover the hives, it also keep the hives warm at winter time. The exist of hive is covered by cow poop mixed with mud, I don't know why they did this.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Best,</div><div><br></div><div>Zong-Xin</div><div><br></div><div><br></div><div><br><span><br>--<br><pre style="line-height:15px"><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman" size="3"><pre><span lang="EN-US"><font face="Times New Roman">*********************************<br>
Zong-Xin Ren, PhD</font></span></pre><pre><font face="Times New Roman"><span lang="EN-US">Post Doc. Department of Biology, Saint Louis University, USA<br>Germplasm Bank of Wild Species, Kunming Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences,<br>
132, Lanhei Road, Kunming, Yunnan 650201, P. R. China<br>Tel: +86</span>－<span lang="EN-US">871-5223534 <br>Fax: +86</span>－<span lang="EN-US">871-5217791<br>E-mail: <a href="mailto:renzongxin@mail.kib.ac.cn" target="_blank">renzongxin@mail.kib.ac.cn</a></span></font></pre>
<pre><span lang="EN-US"><a href="http://renzongxinorchid.weebly.com/" target="_blank">http://renzongxinorchid.weebly.com/</a></span></pre></font></span></pre></span></div><br><br><br></div><br></div></div></div>