Western Honey Bee
Apis mellifera
Least ConcernFast Facts
About
The western honey bee is among the most important insects on the planet, a tireless pollinator responsible for fertilising a vast range of crops and wild plants. Living in highly organised colonies of tens of thousands, it represents a pinnacle of social insect life.
Each hive is ruled by a single egg-laying queen, served by sterile female workers and, seasonally, by male drones.
Behaviour
Honey bees communicate the location of rich food sources to their hive-mates through the celebrated 'waggle dance', encoding direction and distance in a figure-of-eight movement. Workers progress through a sequence of roles as they age, from nursing larvae to foraging.
The colony stores surplus nectar as honey to sustain it through lean periods and winter.
Did you know?
- Foraging bees tell the hive where to find flowers using a coded 'waggle dance'
- A single worker produces only about a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
- The whole colony's survival depends on a single queen who may live for years
- Honey bees beat their wings over 200 times a second, creating their characteristic buzz
Distribution
Native to Europe, Africa and western Asia; now kept worldwide
