At the meeting on 'Beekeeping with Apis cerana' held in February 1988 at the University Pertanian, Malaysia, K and S Mathew, two apiculturists working for a Canadian programme in Tenom, Sabah (Northern Borneo), reported on a new honeybee species which they named 'Apis sabahana'. This bee is similar to A. cerana but much larger than the sympatric A. cerana indica, and of copper-red body colour. This announcement aroused considerable excitement in the scientific world, because of the very low number of recognized honeybee species.