western honey bee

(Apis mellifera)

Conservation Status
western honey bee
Photo by Alfredo Colon
  IUCN Red List

not listed

 
  NatureServe

NNR - Unranked

 
  Minnesota

not listed

 
           
           
           
           
           
           
           
 
Description
 
 

There are seven species of honey bee, all in the genus Apis. None are native to North America. Western honey bee (Apis mellifera) was introduced into North America in the early 1600s and is now found worldwide. African honey bee (Apis mellifera scutellata) is a subspecies of western honey bee.

 
     
 

Size

 
 

 

 
     
 

Similar Species

 
     
     
 
Habitat
 
 

 

 
     
 
Biology
 
 

Season

 
 

 

 
     
 

Behavior

 
 

 

 
     
 

Life Cycle

 
 

 

 
     
 

Larva Food

 
 

 

 
     
 

Adult Food

 
 

 

 
     
 
Distribution
 
 

Distribution Map

 

Sources

7, 24, 27, 29, 30, 82.

 
  8/5/2022      
         
 

Nativity

 
 

Native to Europe, Asia, and Africa. Introduced into North America in the 1600s.

 
         
 

Occurrence

 
 

Widespread and common.

 
         
 
Taxonomy
 
 

Order

Hymenoptera (ants, bees, wasps, and sawflies)  
 

Suborder

Apocrita (narrow-waisted wasps, ants, and bees)  
 

Infraorder

Aculeata (ants, bees, and stinging wasps)  
 

Superfamily

Apoidea (bees and apoid wasps)  
  Epifamily Anthophila (bees)  
 

Family

Apidae (honey bees, bumble bees, and allies)  
 

Subfamily

Apinae (apine bees)  
 

Tribe

Apini (honey bees)  
 

Genus

Apis (honey bees)  
  Subgenus Apis (cavity-nesting honey bees)  
       
 

Synonyms

 
 

Apis mellifica

 
       
 

Common Names

 
 

European honey bee

western honey bee

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 
 
Visitor Photos
 
           
 

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Alfredo Colon

 
    western honey bee      
           
    western honey bee   western honey bee  
           
    western honey bee   western honey bee  
           
    western honey bee   western honey bee  
           
    western honey bee   western honey bee  
           
    western honey bee   western honey bee  
 

Dan W. Andree

 
 

Ambush Bug caught a Honey Bee...

August 3, 2022 on a prairie in Norman Co. Mn. Was hard to photograph the prairie flower it was on kept swaying in the breeze.

  jagged ambush bug (americana)  
           
 

Honey Bee...

 
    western honey bee      
 

Krista Takemoto

 
 

Rare sighting. Save the bees!

 
    western honey bee      
 

Gerry Garcia

 
    western honey bee      
 

Bill Reynolds

 
    western honey bee   western honey bee  
           
    western honey bee      
           
 
MinnesotaSeasons.com Photos
 
    western honey bee   western honey bee  
           
    western honey bee   western honey bee  
           
    western honey bee      

 

Camera

     
 
Slideshows
 
Honey Bee
DianesDigitals
  Honey Bee  
 
About

Copyright DianesDigitals

 

 

slideshow

       
 
Visitor Videos
 
       
 

Share your video of this mammal.

 
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Dan W. Andree

 
  #"Western Honey Bee & White-banded Crab Spider" filmed by Dan W Andree
Mar 15, 2023
 
   
 
About

A Western Honey Bee & White-banded Crab Spider encounter each other on a pale almost white wild rose blossom on a Minnesota prairie. The White-banded Crab spider is trying to capture the Western Honey Bee...It was really windy that day. The video shows the encounter in regular and slow-motion. Hope you enjoy it.

   
       
 
Other Videos
 
  Apis Mellifera: Honey Bee - a slowmo short
Sutton SlowMo
 
   
 
About

Published on Jul 24, 2014

As featured on Gizmodo, MNN.com, Yahoo News, and more. Slow motion honey bees, edited to dubstep with some interesting facts about bees.

 
  La abeja europea (Apis Mellifera) o abeja domestica
Grupo Areaturistica.com - Turismo y Ocio
 
   
 
About

Uploaded on Aug 29, 2011

La abeja europea (Apis mellifera), también conocida como abeja doméstica o abeja melífera, es una especie de himenóptero apócrito de la familia Apidae. Es la especie de abeja con mayor distribución en el mundo. Originaria de Europa, África y parte de Asia, fue introducida en América y Oceanía. Fue clasificada por Carolus Linnaeus en 1758. A partir de entonces numerosos taxónomos describieron variedades geográficas o subespecies que, en la actualidad, superan las 30 razas.

Cuando un apicultor se refiere a sus colmenas en forma colectiva lo hace desde un concepto intuitivo de colectividad, al hablar de los componentes de un apiario, habla lógicamente del conocimiento de la biología de las abejas, cuya naturaleza social hace que el individuo, en sí mismo, carezca de valor en favor de la colectividad de las abejas. Por todo ello se dice que la colmena es un superorganismo. Este superorganismo se comporta con sinergia que es el efecto producido por la interacción entre los componentes de un sistema que hace que el todo sea más que la suma de las partes individuales. A esta sinergia de conjunto demostrada por Farrar matemáticamente se le denomina Regla de Farrar.

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The Western honey bee or European 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 scientific name means "honey-bearing bee". The name was coined in 1758 by Carolus Linnaeus 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 nomenclature, the older name has precedence. As of October 28, 2006, the Honey Bee Genome Sequencing Consortium fully sequenced and analyzed the genome of Apis mellifera.

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Mas informacion textual en wikipedia
Mas informacion en imagenes en masfotografias.com

 
  Western honey bee (Apis mellifera).
JCVdude
 
   
 
About

Uploaded on Apr 4, 2011

Bees are flying insects closely related to wasps and ants, and are known for their role in pollination and for producing honey and beeswax. ...

 
  Honey Bee - The Golden Insect ( Apis - Mellifera ) - Mellisa
AssosVideo
 
   
 
About

Uploaded on Nov 20, 2008

The Golden Insect is a short Documentary about this marvelous insect scientifically named ( Apis - Mellifera ) Apis is Latin for Bee - Mellifera is Greek for to bring Honey, or as is commonly known today as Honey Bee.

It was shot in 1986 with the help of students from KvB College in Sydney Australia.

 
  Honey Bee (Apidae: Apis mellifera) on Blossoms
Carl Barrentine
 
   
 
About

Uploaded on Jul 11, 2009

Photographed at the Rydell NWR, Minnesota (11 July 2009). "The Pedigree of Honey / Does not concern the Bee-- / A clover any time, to him, / Is Aristocracy." --Emily Dickinson

 

 

Camcorder

 
 
Visitor Sightings
 
           
 

Report a sighting of this insect.

 
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Simply email us at info@MinnesotaSeasons.com.
Be sure to include a location.
 
  Alfredo Colon
8/25/2022

Location: Albany, NY

western honey bee  
  Alfredo Colon
8/18/2022

Location: Albany, NY

western honey bee  
  Alfredo Colon
8/4/2022

Location: Albany, NY

western honey bee  
  Dan W. Andree
8/3/2022

Location: Norman Co. Mn.

August 3, 2022 on a prairie in Norman Co. Mn. Was hard to photograph the prairie flower it was on kept swaying in the breeze.

jagged ambush bug (americana)  
  Alfredo Colon
8/2/2022

Location: Albany, NY

western honey bee  
  Alfredo Colon
5/30 to 6/1/2021

Location: Woodbury, MN

western honey bee  
  Krista Takemoto
9/14/2020

Location: Zimmerman, MN

Rare sighting. Save the bees!

western honey bee  
  Alfredo Colon
August 2019

Location: Slinger, Wisconsin

western honey bee  
  Gerry Garcia
8/4/2019

Location: Lyndale Park, Minneapolis, MN

western honey bee  
  Dan W. Andree
end of July 2018

Location: Sandpiper Prairie SNA

western honey bee  
  Bill Reynolds
6/28/2015

These images are of Yellow Indiangrass being worked by a Honey Bee for it's pollen. From my google research, I've not found this interaction between these two species.

western honey bee  
           
 
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