Abstract:To elucidate ecological adaptability of Apis cerana cerana and Apis mellifera ligustica in Wannan mountain areas of Anhui province, food niche, temporal niche and spatial niche of the two types of bees were systematically compared. Our results indicated that food niche breadths of Apis cerana cerana and Apis mellifera ligustica were 0.923 and 0.765, respectively. For Apis cerana cerana, there was very little difference in their preference for different plants, whilst Apis mellifera ligustica showed a much higher variance. The niche overlap index and niche similarity between the two bee species were 0.160 and 0.755, respectively. During the florescence of brassica campestie, temporal niche breadths of Apis cerana cerana and Apis mellifera ligustica were 0.879 and 0.801, respectively, whilst during florescence of Eriobotra japomica, temporal niche breadths of the two species were 0.760 and 0.677, and their spatial niche breadths were 0.797 and 0.670, respectively. Our results also suggested that all niche breadths of Apis cerana cerana were broader than those of Apis mellifera ligustic, and that three-dimensional niche values of Apis cerana cerana were 1.57 and 1.61 times higher than those of Apis mellifera ligustica. Above results clearly indicated that Apis cerana cerana has a better ecological adaptability than Apis mellifera ligustica in Wannan mountain areas.