Micro- and Macroviews. Eastern Mountains and Honeybee, Apis mellifera, on Stachytarpheta cayennensis, Blue Rat's-tail, Raemura Mountain, Rarotonga, Cook Islands
The trail quite slippery and muddy at the beginning then dry climbs steadily up Raemura through dense forests, patches of huge ferns and enormous expanses of naturalised Stachytarpheta cayennensis, Blue Rat's-tail. I respectfully use the designations of the wonderfully informative website of Cook Islands Biodiversity and Natural Heritage (I'd have myself written Stachytarpheta jamaicensis and Snakeweed...). The pretty blue flowers were being visited by many long-wing butterflies and also lots of - I think - feral Honeybees, Apis mellifera.
Those Honeybees are not at all native to these islands. The Biodiversity website says that they were first described for Rarotonga by a versatile Scottish missionary, William Wyatt Gill (1828-1896), who visited here for five months in 1858. He must have had an eye for nature. When precisely European Honeybees were introduced to this island is unclear. But I wouldn't be surprised if that was done by earlier missionaries. The first Honeybees in northern New Zealand were in two hives that another missionary's wife, Mary Bumby (1811-1862) had with her when she arrived there from Europe via Sydney in 1839. Apiculture was stimulated for cultural and agricultural reasons by these missionaries. See my earlier www.flickr.com/photos/87453322@N00/11043460916/in/photoli....
It may be conjectured that Honeybees were introduced here in Rarotonga similarly perhaps already in the late 1820s.
The inset is a view of the Eastern Mountains from the highest slope of Raemura before you get to its rock face.
Micro- and Macroviews. Eastern Mountains and Honeybee, Apis mellifera, on Stachytarpheta cayennensis, Blue Rat's-tail, Raemura Mountain, Rarotonga, Cook Islands
The trail quite slippery and muddy at the beginning then dry climbs steadily up Raemura through dense forests, patches of huge ferns and enormous expanses of naturalised Stachytarpheta cayennensis, Blue Rat's-tail. I respectfully use the designations of the wonderfully informative website of Cook Islands Biodiversity and Natural Heritage (I'd have myself written Stachytarpheta jamaicensis and Snakeweed...). The pretty blue flowers were being visited by many long-wing butterflies and also lots of - I think - feral Honeybees, Apis mellifera.
Those Honeybees are not at all native to these islands. The Biodiversity website says that they were first described for Rarotonga by a versatile Scottish missionary, William Wyatt Gill (1828-1896), who visited here for five months in 1858. He must have had an eye for nature. When precisely European Honeybees were introduced to this island is unclear. But I wouldn't be surprised if that was done by earlier missionaries. The first Honeybees in northern New Zealand were in two hives that another missionary's wife, Mary Bumby (1811-1862) had with her when she arrived there from Europe via Sydney in 1839. Apiculture was stimulated for cultural and agricultural reasons by these missionaries. See my earlier www.flickr.com/photos/87453322@N00/11043460916/in/photoli....
It may be conjectured that Honeybees were introduced here in Rarotonga similarly perhaps already in the late 1820s.
The inset is a view of the Eastern Mountains from the highest slope of Raemura before you get to its rock face.