| Koschevnikov's bee | |
|---|---|
| Scientific classification | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Apidae |
| Genus: | Apis |
| Species: | A. koschevnikovi |
| Binomial name | |
| Apis koschevnikovi Enderlein, 1906 |
|
Koschevnikov's bee, or Apis koschevnikovi, is a species of honey bee which inhabits Malaysian and Indonesian Borneo, where it lives conspecifically with other honey bee species such as Apis cerana (specifically A. c. nuluensis).
The species was first described by Buttel-Reepen, who dedicated it to Grigory Aleksandrovich Kozhevnikov (1866–1933), a 19th century pioneer of honey bee morphology. This was an invalid designation, however, and the name was first formally made available by Günther Enderlein that same year, so Buttel-Reepen is not the author of the name (following the ICZN). The species was described again by Maa in 1953, this time with the name Apis vechti. It was finally rediscovered by Tingek et al. in 1988.
A. koschevnikovi hosts a unique species of the honey bee parasitic mite genus Varroa, named Varroa rindereri (Guzmán et al., 1996). Although this parasite species is quite similar to Varroa jacobsoni it is perfectly differentiable. It has only been reported in colonies of A. koschevnikovi in Borneo and seems to be specific to that species, as it has yet to be observed crossing over to colonies of A. cerana, even when they live in the same apiary.