Western honey bee on the bars of a horizontal top-bar hive
Scientific classification
Domain:
Eukaryota
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Hymenoptera
Family:
Apidae
Clade:
Corbiculata
Tribe:
Apini Latreille, 1802
Genus:
Apis Linnaeus, 1758
Type species
Apis mellifera
Linnaeus, 1758
Species
†Apis lithohermaea
†Apis nearctica
Subgenus Micrapis:
Apis andreniformis
Apis florea
Subgenus Megapis:
Apis dorsata
Apis laboriosa
Subgenus Apis:
Apis cerana
Apis koschevnikovi
Apis mellifera
Apis nigrocincta
A honey bee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus Apis of the bee clade, all native to mainland Afro-Eurasia.[1][2] After bees spread naturally throughout Africa and Eurasia, humans became responsible for the current cosmopolitan distribution of honey bees, introducing multiple subspecies into South America (early 16th century), North America (early 17th century), and Australia (early 19th century).[1]
Honey bees are known for their construction of perennial colonial nests from wax, the large size of their colonies, and surplus production and storage of honey, distinguishing their hives as a prized foraging target of many animals, including honey badgers, bears and human hunter-gatherers. Only 8 surviving species of honey bee are recognized, with a total of 43 subspecies, though historically 7 to 11 species are recognized. Honey bees represent only a small fraction of the roughly 20,000 known species of bees.
The best known honey bee is the western honey bee, (Apis mellifera), which was domesticated for honey production and crop pollination. The only other domesticated bee is the eastern honey bee (Apis cerana), which occurs in South, Southeast, and East Asia. Only members of the genus Apis are true honey bees,[3] but some other types of bees produce and store honey and have been kept by humans for that purpose, including the stingless bees belonging to the genus Melipona and the Indian stingless or dammar bee Tetragonula iridipennis. Modern humans also use beeswax in making candles, soap, lip balms and various cosmetics, as a lubricant and in mould-making using the lost wax process.
^ abWhitfield, Charles W.; Behura, Susanta K.; Berlocher, Stewart H.; et al. (27 October 2006). "Thrice Out of Africa: Ancient and Recent Expansions of the Honey Bee, Apis mellifera". Science. 314 (5799): 642–645. Bibcode:2006Sci...314..642W. doi:10.1126/science.1132772. PMID 17068261. S2CID 15967796.
^Han, Fan; Wallberg, Andreas; Webster, Matthew T. (August 2012). "From where did the Western honeybee (Apis mellifera) originate?". Ecology and Evolution. 2 (8): 1949–1957. Bibcode:2012EcoEv...2.1949H. doi:10.1002/ece3.312. PMC 3433997. PMID 22957195.
^Buchmann, Stephen L. (8 June 2010). Honey Bees: Letters from the Hive (1st ed.). New York: Random House Children's Books. p. 157. ISBN 9780375895579.
honeybee (also spelled honeybee) is a eusocial flying insect within the genus Apis of the bee clade, all native to mainland Afro-Eurasia. After bees...
The western honeybee or European honeybee (Apis mellifera) is the most common of the 7–12 species of honeybees worldwide. The genus name Apis is Latin...
Africanized bee, also known as the Africanized honeybee (AHB) and colloquially as the "killer bee", is a hybrid of the western honeybee (Apis mellifera)...
in the case of the best-known bee species, the western honeybee, for producing honey. Bees are a monophyletic lineage within the superfamily Apoidea...
The honeybee life cycle, here referring exclusively to the domesticated Western honeybee, depends greatly on their social structure. Unlike a bumble...
The Carniolan honeybee (Apis mellifera carnica, Pollmann) is a subspecies of the western honeybee. The Carniolan honeybee is native to Slovenia, southern...
Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honeybees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee...
Maya the HoneyBee (Japanese: みつばちマーヤの冒険, Hepburn: Mitsubachi Māya no Bōken, lit. "The Adventures of Maya the HoneyBee") is an anime television series...
Apis cerana, the eastern honeybee, Asiatic honeybee or Asian honeybee, is a species of honeybee native to South, Southeast and East Asia. This species...
maintenance of bee colonies, commonly in man-made beehives. Honeybees in the genus Apis are the most commonly kept species but other honey producing bees such...
Russian honeybee refers to honeybees (Apis mellifera) that originate in the Primorsky Krai region of Russia. This strain of bee was imported into the United...
film centers on Barry B. Benson (Seinfeld), a honeybee who tries to sue the human race for exploiting bees after learning from his new florist friend Vanessa...
which some honeybee species of the subgenus Apis live and raise their young. Though the word beehive is used to describe the nest of any bee colony, scientific...
Stingless bees (SB), sometimes called stingless honeybees or simply meliponines, are a large group of bees (from about 462 to 552 described species)...
stores. The first 7 series of Honey Nut Cheerios did not have the bee mascot on the box, It was not until series 8 that the bee appeared on the box. Cereal...
The Cape honeybee or Cape bee (Apis mellifera capensis) is a southern South African subspecies of the western honeybee. They play a major role in South...
to Caucasian honeybee. The Caucasian honeybee (Apis mellifera caucasia) is a subspecies of the western honeybee. The Caucasian honeybee originates from...
worker bees in a honeybee colony disappear, leaving behind a queen, plenty of food, and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees. While...
Apis dorsata, the rock bee or giant honeybee, is a honeybee of South and Southeast Asia. They are typically around 17–20 mm (0.7–0.8 in) long and nests...
Diseases of the honeybee or abnormal hive conditions include: Varroa destructor and V. jacobsoni are parasitic mites that feed on the fat bodies of adult...
A queen bee is typically an adult, mated female (gyne) that lives in a colony or hive of honeybees. With fully developed reproductive organs, the queen...
larger insects, colonies of other eusocial insects, tree sap, and honey from honeybee colonies. The hornet has a body length of 45 mm (1+3⁄4 in), a wingspan...
components. A honeybee that is away from the hive foraging for nectar or pollen will rarely sting, except when stepped on or roughly handled. Honeybees will...
ligustica is the Italian bee or the Italian Honeybee which is a subspecies of the western honeybee (Apis mellifera). The Italian honeybee is endemic to the...
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