FIRST APPROXIMATION TO A PHENOLOGY OF THE HONEYBEES (APIS-MELLIFERA) AND FLORA OF AFRICA

Peak flowering by the total flora of Africa coincides with or immediat ely follows peak rainfall. Flowering intensity of the total flora decr eases with distance from the equator, but that of the honeybee plant r esource base (+/-2% of total flora) does not. Flowering in the latter is highly synchronous (months 1-5 north of and 9-11 south of the equat or). Both total and honeybee flora are completely incongruent with eit her the biomes or phytochoria of Africa. There is no significant corre spondence between honeybee phenology and the total flora but significa nt correspondence occurs between honeybees and flowering in honeybee p lant genera. A logistic regression model reveals that honeybee plant f lowering predicts major honeybee colony events with a probability of 0 .81 south of the equator and 0.71 for the whole continent. It is postu lated that promiscuity in the bee plant genera and honeybees of Africa have contributed to their continental ubiquity.