AY Honors/Insect/Apis

Apis

Honey Bee (Apis)

Order: Hymenoptera

Where found: Worldwide

Description: Honey bees (or honeybees) are a subset of bees which represent a far smaller fraction of bee diversity than most people suspect; of the approximately 20,000 known species of bees, there are only seven presently-recognized species with a total of 44 subspecies (Engel, 1999; historically, anywhere from six to eleven species have been recognized). These bees are the only living members of the tribe Apini, all in the genus Apis, and all of which produce and store liquified sugar ("honey") to some degree, and construct colonial nests out of wax secreted by the workers in the colony. Other types of related bee produce and store honey, but only members of the genus Apis are considered true honey bees.