European honey bee
Western honey bee (Apis mellifera)
Honey bee foraging on African Oil Palm flowers
Scientific classification
Kingdom:
Animalia
Phylum:
Arthropoda
Class:
Insecta
Order:
Hymenoptera
Suborder:
Apocrita
Superfamily: Apoidea
Family:
Apidae
Subfamily:
Apinae
Tribe:
Apini
Genus:
Apis
Species:
A. mellifera
Binomial name
Apis mellifera
Linnaeus, 1758
Subspecies
North-west of Europe
• A. m. iberica
• A. m. intermissa
• A. m. lihzeni
• A. m. mellifera
• A. m. sahariensis
South-west of Europe
• A. m. carnica
• A. m. cecropia
• A. m. ligustica
• A. m. macedonica
• A.m. ruttneri
• A. m. sicula
Middle East
• A. m. adamii
• A. m. anatoliaca
• A. m. armeniaca
• A. m. caucasica
• A. m. cypria
• A. m. meda
Africa
• A. m. adansonii
• A. m. capensis
• A. m. intermissa
• A. m. lamarckii
• A. m. litorea
• A. m. major
• A. m. monticola
• A. m. sahariensis
• A. m. scutellata
• A. m. unicolor
• A. m. jemenitica
Synonyms
Apis mellifica Linnaeus, 1761
The European honey bee or western
honey bee (Apis mellifera) is a species of
honey bee. The genus Apis is Latin for "bee",
and mellifera comes
from Latin melli-
"honey" and ferre "to bear" — hence the sci-
entific name means "honey-bearing bee". The
name was coined in 1758 by Carolus Lin-
naeus who, realizing that the bees do not
bear honey, but nectar, tried later to correct
it to Apis mellifica ("honey-making bee") in a
subsequent publication. However, according
to the rules of synonymy in zoological nomen-
clature, the older name has precedence.
Some people who are unaware of this still
use the incorrect subsequent spelling. As of
October 28, 2006, the Honey Bee Genome
Sequencing Consortium fully sequenced and
analyzed the genome of Apis mellifera.
In 2007 media attention focused on Co-
lony Collapse Disorder, a decline in European
honey bee colonies in a minority of regions of
North America.
Geographic distribution
Subspecies originating in
Europe
• Apis mellifera ligustica , classified by
Spinola, 1806 - the Italian bee. The most
commonly kept race in North America,
Sout