Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Books & Arts
  • Published:

A drink from the magic well

Nature volume 442, page 249 (2006)Cite this article

Access through your institution
Buy or subscribe

Asian Honey Bees: Biology, Conservation and Human Interactions

  • Benjamin P. Oldroyd &
  • Siriwat Wongsiri
Harvard University Press: 2006. 340 pp. $59.95, £38.95 0674021940 | ISBN: 0-674-02194-0

Karl von Frisch, who won the 1973 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovering the honeybee dance language, called the honeybee a magic well — no matter how much was discovered, more remained. Most research on honeybees, including von Frisch's, has been done on Apis mellifera. This species, the western hive bee, is native to Europe, Africa and the Middle East, and has been introduced worldwide because of its economic importance in making honey and pollinating crops. But Asia is home to eight more species of Apis, five of which have been recently discovered or recognized. The past ten years has seen an upsurge of research on these species, leading to some 250 scientific articles.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Access through your institution

Buy this article

  • Purchase on SpringerLink
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, Laboratory of Apiculture and Social Insects, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK

    Francis L. W. Ratnieks

Authors
  1. Francis L. W. Ratnieks
    View author publications

    Search author on:PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Ratnieks, F. A drink from the magic well. Nature 442, 249 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/442249a

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/442249a

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing