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, upon realizing 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.
In 2007, media attention focused on colony collapse disorder, a decline in European honey bee colonies in various parts of the world.
Read more about Western Honey Bee: Geographic Distribution, Biology, Life Cycle, Drones, Life Expectancy, Honey Production, Thermoregulation, Queens, Queen-Worker Conflict, Genome, Beekeeping, Hazards and Survival, Designated State Insect, See Also
Famous quotes containing the words western, honey and/or bee:
“In Western Europe people perish from the congestion and stifling closeness, but with us it is from the spaciousness.... The expanses are so great that the little man hasn’t the resources to orient himself.... This is what I think about Russian suicides.”
—Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)
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—Hilda Doolittle (1886–1961)
“Where the bee sucks, there suck I,
In a cowslip’s bell I lie;
There I couch when owls do cry.
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Under the blossom that hangs on the bough.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)