of a sterile female worker honey bee All honey bees are
nectarivorous pollinators native to mainland
Afro-Eurasia, but
human migrations and
colonizations to the
New World since the
Age of Discovery have been responsible for the
introduction of multiple
subspecies of the
western honey bee into South America (early 16th century), North America (early 17th century) and Australia (early 19th century), resulting in the current
cosmopolitan distribution of honey bees in all continents except
Antarctica. The close relatives of modern honey bees—e.g.,
bumblebees and
stingless bees—are also social to some degree, and social behavior is considered to be a trait that predates the origin of the genus. Among the extant members of
Apis, the more
basal species make single, exposed combs, while the more recently evolved species nest in cavities and have multiple combs, which has greatly facilitated their domestication.
Species While about 20,000 species of bees exist, only eight
extant species of honey bee are recognized, with a total of 43
subspecies, although historically seven to 11 species are recognized:
Apis andreniformis (the black dwarf honey bee);
Apis cerana (the eastern honey bee);
Apis dorsata (the giant honey bee);
Apis florea (the red dwarf honey bee);
Apis koschevnikovi (Koschevnikov's honey bee);
Apis laboriosa (the Himalayan giant honey bee);
Apis mellifera (the western honey bee); and
Apis nigrocincta (the Philippine honey bee). Honey bees are the only extant members of the
tribe Apini. Today's honey bees constitute three
clades:
Micrapis (the dwarf honey bees),
Megapis (the giant honey bees), and
Apis (the western honey bee and its close relatives). Most species have historically been cultured or at least exploited for honey and
beeswax by humans indigenous to their native ranges. Only two species have been truly
domesticated:
Apis mellifera and
Apis cerana.
A. mellifera has been cultivated at least since the time of the building of the
Egyptian pyramids, and only that species has been moved extensively beyond its native range.
Micrapis Apis florea and
Apis andreniformis are small honey bees of southern and southeastern Asia. They make very small, exposed nests in trees and shrubs. Their stings are often incapable of penetrating human skin, so the
hive and
swarms can be handled with minimal protection. They occur largely
sympatrically, though they are very distinct
evolutionarily and are probably the result of
allopatric speciation, their distribution later converging. Given that
A. florea is more widely distributed and
A. andreniformis is considerably more aggressive, honey is, if at all, usually harvested from the former only. They are the earliest-diverging extant lineage of honey bees.
Apis florea are also completely yellow except the scutellum of workers, which is black. •
Apis laboriosa, the Himalayan giant honey bee, was initially described as a distinct species. Later, it was included in
A. dorsata as a subspecies Essentially restricted to the
Himalayas, it differs little from the giant honey bee in appearance but has extensive behavioral
adaptations that enable it to nest in the open at high altitudes despite low ambient temperatures. It is the largest living honey bee.
Apis Eastern
Apis species include three or four species, including
A. koschevnikovi,
A. nigrocincta, and
A. cerana. The genetics of the western honey bee (
A. mellifera) are unclear.
Koschevnikov's honey bee Koschevnikov's honey bee (
Apis koschevnikovi) is often referred to in the literature as the "red bee of Sabah"; however,
A. koschevnikovi is pale reddish in
Sabah State,
Borneo, Malaysia, but a dark, coppery colour in the
Malay Peninsula and
Sumatra, Indonesia. Its habitat is limited to the tropical evergreen forests of the
Malay Peninsula,
Borneo and
Sumatra and they do not live in tropical evergreen rain forests which extend into Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam.
Eastern honey bee Apis cerana, the eastern honey bee proper, is the traditional honey bee of southern and eastern Asia. One of its subspecies, the Indian honey bee (
A. c. indica), was
domesticated and kept in hives in a fashion similar to
A. mellifera, though on a more limited, regional scale. It has not been possible yet to resolve its relationship to the Bornean honey bee
A. c. nuluensis and
Apis nigrocincta from the Philippines to satisfaction; some researchers argue that these are indeed distinct species, but that
A. cerana as defined is still
paraphyletic, consisting of several separate species,
Western honey bee A. mellifera, the most common domesticated species, was first domesticated before 2600 BC and was the third insect to have its
genome mapped. It seems to have originated in eastern tropical Africa and spread from there to Europe and eastwards into Asia to the
Tian Shan range. It is variously called the European, western, or common honey bee in different parts of the world. Many
subspecies have adapted to the local geographic and climatic environments; in addition, breeds such as the
Buckfast bee have been bred. Behavior, colour, and anatomy can be quite different from one subspecies or even strain to another. The diversity of
A. mellifera subspecies is probably the product of a largely
Early Pleistocene radiation aided by climate and habitat changes during the
last ice age. That the western honey bee has been intensively managed by humans for many millennia—including hybridization and introductions—has apparently increased the speed of its
evolution and confounded the DNA sequence data to a point where little of substance can be said about the exact relationships of many
A. mellifera subspecies. In 1622, European colonists brought the
German honey bee (
A. m. mellifera) to the Americas first, followed later by the
Italian honey bee (
A. m. ligustica) and others. Many of the crops that depend on western honey bees for pollination have also been imported since colonial times. Escaped swarms (known as "wild" honey bees, but actually
feral) spread rapidly as far as the
Great Plains, usually preceding the colonists. Honey bees did not naturally cross the
Rocky Mountains; they were transported by the
Mormon pioneers to Utah in the late 1840s, and by ship to California in the early 1850s.
Africanized honey bee Africanized honey bees (known colloquially as "killer bees") are
hybrids between European stock and the African subspecies
A. m. scutellata. They are often more aggressive than European honey bees and do not create as much of a honey surplus, but are more resistant to disease and are better foragers. Accidentally released from quarantine in Brazil, they have spread to North America and constitute a
pest in some regions. However, these strains do not overwinter well, so they are not often found in the colder, more northern parts of North America. The original breeding experiment for which the African honey bees were brought to Brazil in the first place has continued (though not as originally intended). Novel hybrid strains of domestic and re-domesticated Africanized honey bees combine high resilience to tropical conditions and good yields. They are popular among beekeepers in Brazil. == Living and fossil honey bees (Apini:
Apis) ==