A Scientific Note on the Evolutionary Relationships Between Honey Bees and Their Enemies

Abstract

Honey bees are used in intensive way in agriculture due to their vital role in pollination of crops. Moreover, there are many valuable products from the bee colonies. Unfortunately, there are many enemies to honey bees. These enemies belong to various taxonomic ranks, including birds, insects and mites. Serious damages can be caused to honey bee colonies by these enemies. The sophisticated evolutionary relationships between honey bees and their enemies are not well investigated. In this study, phylogenetic trees between honey bees and their enemies were constructed based on the mtDNA and the COX1. The constructed trees reflected the evolutionary relationships according to behavior and taxonomical characters based on mtDNA and COX1, respectively. Predators, cavity-nesting bees, and parasites were separated than each other based on the first 1000 bases of the mtDNA. Insects were separated than mites and birds, in line with the classification of each organism based on the COX1.