Back Ашьхыц Abkhazian Heuningby Afrikaans Europäische Honigbiene ALS نحل العسل الغربي Arabic نحل العسل الغربى ARZ Apis mellifera AST Bal arısı Azerbaijani Imp BAR Bėtės BAT-SMG Меданосная пчала Byelorussian
| Western honey bee Temporal range:
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Scientific classification 
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| Domain: | Eukaryota |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Apidae |
| Genus: | Apis |
| Species: | A. mellifera
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| Binomial name | |
| Apis mellifera | |
| Subspecies[3] | |
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The western honey bee or European honey bee (Apis mellifera) is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bees worldwide.[3][4] The genus name Apis is Latin for 'bee', and mellifera is the Latin for 'honey-bearing' or 'honey-carrying', referring to the species' production of honey.[5]
Like all honey bee species, the western honey bee is eusocial, creating colonies with a single fertile female (or "queen"), many normally non-reproductive females or "workers", and a small proportion of fertile males or "drones". Individual colonies can house tens of thousands of bees. Colony activities are organized by complex communication between individuals, through both pheromones and the dance language.
The western honey bee was one of the first domesticated insects, and it is the primary species maintained by beekeepers to this day for both its honey production and pollination activities. With human assistance, the western honey bee now occupies every continent except Antarctica. Western honey bees are threatened by pests and diseases, especially the Varroa mite and colony collapse disorder. There are indications that the species is rare, if not extinct in the wild in Europe and as of 2014, the western honey bee was assessed as "Data Deficient" on the IUCN Red List. Numerous studies indicate that the species has undergone significant declines in Europe; however, it is not clear if they refer to population reduction of wild or managed colonies. Further research is required to enable differentiation between wild and non-wild colonies in order to determine the conservation status of the species in the wild, meaning self sustaining, without treatments or management.[6]
Western honey bees are an important model organism in scientific studies, particularly in the fields of social evolution, learning, and memory; they are also used in studies of pesticide toxicity, especially via pollen, to assess non-target impacts of commercial pesticides.
- ^ De la Rúa, P., Paxton, R.J., Moritz, R.F.A., Roberts, S., Allen, D.J., Pinto, M.A., Cauia, E., Fontana, P., Kryger, P., Bouga, M., Buechler, R., Costa, C., Crailsheim, K., Meixner, M., Siceanu, A. & Kemp, J.R. (2014). "Apis mellifera". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2014: e.T42463639A42463665. Retrieved 23 July 2017.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ "Western honey bee". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. 2019. 2019. ISSN 2307-8235. Retrieved 1 May 2019.
- ^ a b Michael S Engel (1999). "The taxonomy of recent and fossil honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae; Apis)". Journal of Hymenoptera Research. 8 (2): 165–196. Retrieved 20 January 2023.
- ^ Lo, N.; Golag, R.S.; Anderson, D.L.; Oldroyd, B.P. (2010). "A molecular phylogeny of the genus Apis suggests that the Giant Honey Bee of the Philippines, A. breviligula Maa, and the Plains Honey Bee of southern India, A. indica Fabricius, are valid species". Systematic Entomology. 35 (2): 226–233. Bibcode:2010SysEn..35..226L. doi:10.1111/j.1365-3113.2009.00504.x. S2CID 84531938.
- ^ "Western Honeybees: Facts, Prevention & Honey Bee Control". www.orkin.com. Retrieved 2022-05-13.
- ^ "The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species". IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. Retrieved 2019-05-11.