Apis cerana nuluensis

Apis cerana nuluensis is a subspecies of honey bee

Honey bee

Honey bees are a subset of bees, primarily distinguished by the production and storage of honey and the construction of perennial, colonial nests out of wax. Honey bees are the only extant members of the tribe Apini, all in the genus Apis...

 described in 1996 by Tingek, Koeniger & Koeniger. The geographic distribution of the subspecies is the south-east Asian

Southeast Asia

Manila
Bangkok
Ho Chi Minh City
Kuala Lumpur
Singapore
Yangon
Bandung
Hanoi
Surabaya
Taichung
Kaohsiung
Medan|-|}...

 island of Borneo

Borneo

Borneo is the third largest island in the world and is located at the centre of Maritime Southeast Asia. Administratively, this island is divided among Indonesia , Malaysia and Brunei . Indonesians refer to the island as Kalimantan...

, politically divided between Indonesia

Indonesia

The Republic of Indonesia is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia comprises 17,508 islands. With an estimated population of around 237 million people, it is the world's fourth most populous country, with the world's largest population of Muslims.Indonesia is a republic, with an...

, Malaysia

Malaysia

Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia that consists of thirteen states and three Federal Territories, with a total landmass of . The capital city is Kuala Lumpur, while Putrajaya is the seat of the federal government. The population stands at over 28 million inhabitants...

, and Brunei

Brunei

Brunei , officially the State of Brunei Darussalam or the Nation of Brunei, the Abode of Peace , is a country located on the north coast of the island of Borneo, in Southeast Asia...

.

A. c. nuluensis is one of a number of Asiatic honey bees, including the more obscure Apis koschevnikovi

Apis koschevnikovi

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 Koschevnikov's Bee, or Apis koschevnikovi, is a species of honey bee which inhabits Malaysian and...

and Apis nigrocincta

Apis nigrocincta

Apis nigrocincta is a species of honey bee that inhabits the Philippine island of Mindanao as well as the Indonesian islands of Sangihe and the Celebes or Sulawesi.The species builds nests in cavities like the closely related Apis cerana...

(the latter of which has nearby habitat on nearby Sulawesi

Sulawesi

Sulawesi is one of the four larger Sunda Islands of Indonesia and is situated between Borneo and the Maluku Islands.- Etymology :...

 and Mindanao

Mindanao

Mindanao is the second largest and easternmost island in the Philippines. It is also one of the three island groups in the country, along with Luzon and Visayas...

 islands)

While this was originally described as a species, it has since been classified as a geographic race (subspecies) of the widespread A. cerana (Engel, 1999). Molecular evidence suggests it is divergent enough in its DNA sequences to classify the lineage as a species (Arias & Sheppard, 2005), but there has been no formal reassignment to date.


Like many honey bees, A. c. nuluensis is liable to infestation by the parasitic Varroa

Varroa

Varroa is a genus of parasitic mites associated with honey bees. The genus was named for Marcus Terentius Varro, a Roman scholar who was also a beekeeper.Selected species...

mite, although in this case the particular species is Varroa underwoodi. (In this aspect, A. c. nuluensis is similar to A. nigrocincta)