Names and Naming of Honey Bees & their Subspecies
In commonspeak, the word “bees”, refers to “honey” bees 90% of the time, bumble bees 9.9% of the time, and solitary bees 0.1% of the time (if you’re lucky). The European Honey Bees Apis mellifera (A. mellifera; also referred to as the “Western Honey Bee”) has the Latin genus name, “Apis” for “bee”, and species name, “mellifera“, for “honey bearing“. Previously, they were called Apis mellifica, “honey producing”, a term outdated after their formal classification by Carl Linnaeus in 1758.
This article explores the history & classification of A. mellifera, its subspecies and other bees in the genus Apis. It ends on a comparison on the common features between the two “domesticated” bee species – the Asian & European bees.
Naming History of the Western Honey Bee
Initially, the Western honey bee was named Apis mellifica, on the basis that honey bees produced the honey themselves, rather than through foraging and storing the collected nectar. It was by the later work of Carl Linnaeus that we now have Apis mellifera, its current scientific, Latin name.
Who used the term Apis mellifica?
Reader Tobias asked for the original source of the name “Apis mellifica“. It has been used by many in the past, and it was Linnaeus who first changed the classification from A. mellifica to A. mellifera in his tenth edition of Systema Naturae (“The System of Nature”, 1758). The (possibly apocryphal) story goes as follows: Linnaeus’ brother was a beekeeper who saw that his brother wrote “A. mellifica” to classify honey bees as “honey makers”, however he knew that this was not the case, as they were in fact, as they were gatherers, not makers, hence the correction to “A. mellifera“.
Despite the change, other naturalists like Fabricus (who gives us the Asian honey bee classification of Apis cerana Fabricus) continued to Apis mellifica, as in Systema Entomologiae (“The System of Entomology”, 1775). Interestingly, the second edition of Linnaeus’ Fauna Svecica (“Fauna of Sweden”, 1761) reverts to Apis mellifica. Why this is the case, I do not know.
Left: Linnaeus’ Systema Naturae (10th edition, 1758-59) using Apis mellifera. Middle: Linnaeus’ Fauna Svecica (2nd edition, 1761), reverting to “Apis mellifica”. Right: a later publication by Fabricus, Systema Entomologiae (1775) using “Apis mellifica”.
The Linnaean Classification of Apis mellifera
The original Linnaean classification of honey bees assigns each species a name that is unique to their characteristics (“binomial nomenclature”). Using A. mellifera as an example:
Kingdom: Animalia
For they are multicelluar organisms that move and obtain food from other sources.
Phylum: Arthropoda
For they have jointed legs, a segmented body and a chitinous exoskeleton.
Class: Insecta
Honey bees belong to the Insecta class: three pairs of legs, two pairs of wings and a three-segmented body; consisting of the head, thorax & abdomen.
Order: Hymenoptera
Placed here because their wings contain membranes with a unique wing-vein structure, and they possess chewing mouthparts. Ants and wasps also belong in this Order.
“Hymen” refers to their “married” (two-pairs) or “membranous” wings – -ptera.
Family: Apidae
For they are social insects that live in colonies, producing communal honey and beeswax. Stingless bees and bumble bees also do the same, but not in sufficient quantities for human use.
Genus: Apis
Classified on the basis of their distinctive body shape and behaviours.
Compared to other insects, European honey bees tend to have a “stocky” body shape, with a relatively short and wide abdomen, as well as a large head with relatively short antennae. Additionally, they are densely covered in hairs to trap pollen, provide protection from predators and parasites.
Species: Mellifera
While we’ve learnt that this refers to “honey collector”, there are further points of distinction from other bees such as A. cerana, and are based characteristics such as the colour of their abdomen stripes and nest-building behaviours.
A Note on Taxonomy
The “Domain” of Eukaryotes comes before Kingdom, as they are cellular organisms with a nucleus, however this was not included in the original taxonomy system and is beyond the scope of this article. Further, the modern International Code of Zoological Nomenclature expanded on the Linnaean classification. Using A. mellifera, we now have:
- Order: Hymenoptera
- Suborder: Apocrita
- Superfamily: Apoidea
- Previously it was “Epifamily”
- Family: Apidae
- Subfamily: Apinae
- Tribe: Apini
- Subtribe (rare)
- Genus: Apis
- Subgenus
- Species: mellifera
- Subspecies: capenisis, lamarckii, scutellata…
Subspecies of the Western Honey Bee
A. mellifera subspecies are identified on the basis of their geographical location and behavioural characteristics. The European bees that were first classified by Linnaeus are known as Apis mellifera mellifera (“European Dark Bee”), which originated in Central Asia, having migrated to Northern Europe at the end of the the last Ice Age, (~12,000 years ago).
Such widespread distribution in a short period time begs the question: Are honey bees invasive?
Five Apis mellifera Subspecies: Europe
A.mellifera ligustica:
The Italian honey bee that is most commonly used for commercial beekeeping worldwide. Docile queens and hardworking workers. Golden-orange in colour
A.mellifera iberiensis:
From the Iberian peninsula, encapsulating Spain, Portugal and Gibraltar.
A.mellifera siciliana:
As suggestive of the name, native to the island of Sicily.
A.mellifera cypria:
As suggestive of the name, native to the island of Cyprus.
A.mellifera carnica:
A very gentle bee originating from the plains in the south-east of Central Europe – the Roman province of Pannonia. Whereas lingustica is used all over the world, carnica is the most popular subspecies in Europe. A darker coloured queen “tiger stripes”
Five Apis mellifera Subspecies from Africa
A.mellifera unicolour:
A honey bee native to Madagascar.
- A parasitic honey bee found in South Africa. These workers lay diploid eggs and can collapse a colony of A.m. scutelleta via parasitation.
A.mellifera intermissa:
Found in the north-western coast of Africa.
A.mellifera scutellata:
From Central and East Africa, the strain used to created the hybridized, “Africianized” bees.
A.mellifera lamarckii:
Found in Egypt and Sudan, this species was domesticated by the ancient Egyptians.
Five Apis mellifera Subspecies from Asia & Middle East
A.mellifera meda:
Commonly found in Iran & Iraq, as well as into the borders of the surrounding Syria & Turkey.
A.mellifera ruttneri:
A native species of the Maltese islands.
A.mellifer remipes:
A native species located in Armenia.
A.mellifera anatoliaca:
As suggestive of the name, found in the Anatolian region of Turkey.
A.mellifera mellifera:
The original honey bee, which migrated out of Central Asia ~12000 years ago.
What are “Africanised Bees”?
Further reading: Africanised honey bees
Africianised honey bees, are an A. mellifera subspecies, however they are deemed pests, earning the nickname “killer” due to their ferocious nature. These bees will chase intruders from their nests, human or otherwise, for up to 500 meters. They attack as a swarm, and the repeated stings are deemed dangerous or even deadly for some people.
Bees in the Apis Genus
There are a total of eleven recognized species of honey bees in the genus Apis (Engel, 1999 & Lo et al., 2010):
The small or dwarf honey bee: Apis florea & Apis andreniformis
- Commonly called “dwarf” honey bees due to their relatively smaller size. Between the two species, A. andreniformis is darker, and have small differences in their proboscis and other compared to A. florea.
The “giant” honey bees: Apis dorsata, Apis laboriosa & Apis breviligula
- Classified on the basis of their distribution. A. laboriosa is found in high altitudes along the Himalayan mountains, A. dorsata throughout South and south-east Asia, and A. breviligula in the Philippine islands.
The mid-sized (or cavity-nesting) honey bees: Apis mellifera, Apis cerana, Apis koshevnicovi, Apis nigrocincta, Apis nuluensis & Apis indica.
All of these species produce honey, with A. mellifera and A. cerana as the “domesticated stock”1 for honey production. Seven of these species originated out of the Asia/South East Asia region, and one can argue that the A.mellifera also belongs in this list, making it eight.
Apis cerana vs Apis mellifera
While the majority of beekeepers have colonies of A. mellifera, the beekeepers of eastern Asia (particularly in the south and south-east regions) keep hives of A. cerana. General honey bee nesting behaviours are covered in the natural beehive.
A. cerana:
Smaller, with an average body length of 10mm.
Produces between 15-20kg of honey per year, dependent on foraging conditions.
Smaller nest sizes, colonies contain around 10,000-30,000 worker bees.
High swarming tendencies, as many as six times per year (Ruttner et al., 1972).
Less likely to sting, generally when directly provoked.
Forage for short distances from the hive; a few hundred meters.
As a result, they are not as efficient pollinators when compared to the Western honey bee.
A. mellifera
Larger bees with an average body length between 12-15 mm.
Produces between 30-60kg of honey per year, dependent on foraging conditions.
Smaller nest sizes, colonies contain around 10,000-30,000 worker bees.
Swarm once or twice a year in the spring and summer.
More likely to sting, either in defence of the hive or when threatened.
Foragers travel many kilometres away from the hive in search of nectar and pollen.
More effective at pollination due to the longer foraging distance and longer proboscis, amongst other factors…
Which A. mellifera Subspecies is Best for Beekeeping?
For the hobbyist beekeepers, it is either the Italian honey bees, A.m. linguistica, or the Carniolan honey bee, A.m. carnica. I keep these two subspecies myself, and I find them to be (mostly) gentle and provide high honey yields, suitable for most environments.
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Footnotes
- Honey bees are “wild” they are not domestic. Mankind found ways around manipulating their habitat and environment to expolit them for honey. Rest assured they will sting you to death if you threaten their hive. Not domesticated at all! ↩︎
APIs mellifera colony
Indeed, buzz buzz!