The Asian honeybee Apis cerana is one of two bee species that have been commercially kept with immense economic value. Here we present the analysis of genomic sequence and transcriptomic exploration for A. cerana as well as the comparative genomic analysis of the Asian honeybee and the European honeybee A. mellifera. The genome and RNA-seq data yield new insights into the behavioral and physiological resistance to the parasitic mite Varroa the evolution of antimicrobial peptides, and the genetic basis for labor division in A. cerana. Comparison of genes between the two sister species revealed genes specific to A. cerana, 54.5% of which have no homology to any known proteins. The observation that A. cerana displayed significantly more vigilant grooming behaviors to the presence of Varroa than A. mellifera in conjunction with gene expression analysis suggests that parasite-defensive grooming in A. cerana is likely triggered not only by exogenous stimuli through visual and olfactory detection of the parasite, but also by genetically endogenous processes that periodically activates a bout of grooming to remove the ectoparasite. This information provides a valuable platform to facilitate the traits unique to A. cerana as well as those shared with other social bees for health improvement.

Megabombus bumblebees have unusually long tongues and are generally more specialised than other bumblebees in their choice of food plants. The phylogeny of Megabombus bumblebees shows that speciation was concentrated in two periods. Speciation in the first period (ca 4.25–1.5 Ma) is associated with the late rise of the Hengduan Mountains at the eastern end of the Qinghai-Tibetan plateau. Speciation in the second period (1.2–0.3 Ma) is associated with climatic cooling in the northern forests. The most extreme food-specialist species belong to the second period, which may point to climate as a factor in specialisation. These extreme specialist species occur either in the far north (Bombus consobrinus), or at high elevations (Bombus gerstaeckeri), in situations where long tongues coincide with the shortest nesting seasons. Species with the longest tongues but occurring further south (even at high elevations) use a broader range of food plants.

Pear (Pyrus bretschneideri) is characterized by being self-incompatible and dependent on cross-pollination to set fruit. Honeybee (Apis mellifera) is considered the most important pollinator of pear. Nevertheless, limited pollen transfer has been cited as the main cause of poor fruit set in many pear orchards. Here, we tested the following hypotheses: (i) colony manipulations increase the pollen collection tendency of honeybees and (ii) the proportion of pollen loads being returned to the hive is from the target plant. The technique reliably and rapidly estimates the pollination of honeybees tested under different colony manipulations: (1) using pollen trapping (PT); (2) PT with sugar syrup feeding (SS) (PTSS); (3) SS alone and (4) control without PT and SS. The results clearly show that the pollen collection of honeybees during the experiment was significantly affected (P < 0.05) by colony manipulations. The mean amount of pollen harvested daily was higher for PTSS (19.4 g) and PT (16.4 g) than for SS (12.85 g) and control (8.7 g) colonies. Therefore, PTSS was the most effective treatment for increasing pear pollen collection; other treatments such as PT and SS could also be useful. This study was important for determining how the behavior of honeybee colonies is shaped through colony manipulation to enhance pollen collection of less preferred pear flowers, which is critical when pollination is required.