Western honey bee
Apis mellifera Linnaeus, 1758
DDData Deficientbees wasps and ants
The western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is an insect in the bee subgroup, belonging to the family Apidae in the order Hymenoptera. Its main foods are nectar and pollen.
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Quick facts about the western honey bee
The IUCN Red List places the western honey bee in the Data Deficient (DD) category in its global assessment. Our sources report a lifespan of up to 8 years, and checklists record it in Australia.
- Weight
- Not recorded
- Length
- Not recorded
- Lifespan
- Not recorded
- Longest recorded lifespan
- 8 years
- Main food
- nectar, pollensrc for Main food
- Habitat
- Not recorded
- Young per litter or clutch
- Not recorded
- Conservation status
- Data Deficient (IUCN)src for Conservation status
- Countries on record
- 1 countrysrc for Countries on record
Photos of the western honey bee
Only freely licensed photos are shown. Each carries its creator and licence.
Where does the western honey bee live?
Countries where Catalogue of Life checklists list the species. Many checklists carry no country data, so the list is often incomplete. It is not a range map.
The western honey bee is listed for 1 country.
- Listed
- Not listed
The same countries as a list
Why a country list is not a range map
Listed by: ITIS (scope: global), through the Catalogue of Life.
What is the western honey bee?
The western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bees worldwide. 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.
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 waggle dance.
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. As of 2025, the western honey bee was assessed as "Data Deficient" on the IUCN Red List.
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.
From the Wikipedia article “Western honey bee” (en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Western_honey_bee&oldid=1378342627), by Wikipedia contributors, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 (creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0). This block is kept separate from our own text.
What does the western honey bee sound like?
Is the western honey bee endangered?
The western honey bee is listed as Data Deficient on the IUCN Red List: it has too little data for its risk to be assessed.
Category via Wikidata (CC0). Find the full assessment on the IUCN Red List. See all Data Deficient species. What the categories mean.
How is the western honey bee classified?
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumArthropoda
- classInsecta
- orderHymenoptera
- familyApidae
- genusApis
- SpeciesApis mellifera Linnaeus, 1758
Synonyms Apis adansonii, Apis aenigmaticus, Apis australis, Apis caffra, Apis cerifera, Apis cerifera, Apis daurica, Apis fasciata, Apis gregaria, Apis intermissa, Apis mellica cypria, Apis mellica remipes, Apis mellida caucasia, Apis mellifera acervorum, Apis mellifera adami, Apis mellifera adansoni, Apis mellifera anatoliaca, Apis mellifera armeniaca, Apis mellifera artemisia, Apis mellifera capensis, Apis mellifera carnica, Apis mellifera carniolica, Apis mellifera carpatica, Apis mellifera caucasica, Apis mellifera cecropia, Apis mellifera cypria, Apis mellifera iberica, Apis mellifera iberiensis, Apis mellifera intermissa, Apis mellifera jemenitica, Apis mellifera lamarckii, Apis mellifera ligustica, Apis mellifera litorea, Apis mellifera macedonica, Apis mellifera major, Apis mellifera meda, Apis mellifera monticola, Apis mellifera nubica, Apis mellifera remipes, Apis mellifera ruttneri, Apis mellifera sahariensis, Apis mellifera scutellata, Apis mellifera siciliana, Apis mellifera sicula, Apis mellifera simensis, Apis mellifera sossimai, Apis mellifera syriaca, Apis mellifera taurica, Apis mellifera unicolor, Apis mellifica, Apis mellifica adami, Apis mellifica banatica, Apis mellifica carnica, Apis mellifica cecropia, Apis mellifica germanica, Apis mellifica hymettea, Apis mellifica nigrita, Apis mellifica rodopica, Apis mellifica sahariensis, Apis nigritarum, Apis remipes armeniaca, Apis remipes transcaucasica, Apis siciliana, Apis sicula
Other names and names in other languages (99)
- Africanized honey beeEnglish
- Domestic honey beeEnglish
- Drone-beeEnglish
- European honey beeEnglish
- Honey beeEnglish
- Honey beeEnglish
- Killer beeEnglish
- HeuningbyAfrikaans
- NwowaAkan
- نحل العسل الغربيArabic
- abeichaAsturian
- NyawanBalinese
- Eirópäischer ImpBavarian
- Меданосная пчалаBelarusian
- Европейска медоносна пчелаBulgarian
- Abella de la melCatalan
- Abella de la Mel EuropeaCatalan
- Gwenyn Mêl OrllewinolWelsh
- HonningbiDanish
- HonigbieneGerman
- Europäische HonigbieneGerman
- Westliche HonigbieneGerman
- ΜέλισσαGreek
- MielabeloEsperanto
- Abeja melíferaSpanish
- Abeja doméstica europeaSpanish
- Abeja melífera europeaSpanish
- MeemesilaneEstonian
- زنبور عسلPersian
- MehiläinenFinnish
- tarhamehiläinenFinnish
- Abeille à mielFrench
- abeille domestiqueFrench
- Abeille européenneFrench
- HönangimNorthern Frisian
- seillean-milScottish Gaelic
- seillean-dìomhainScottish Gaelic
- seillean-lunndachScottish Gaelic
- seillean-mealaScottish Gaelic
- seilleanan-dìomhainScottish Gaelic
- seilleanan-lunndachScottish Gaelic
- seilleanan-mealaScottish Gaelic
- Abella do melGalician
- Nalo-meliHawaiian
- דבורת הדבשHebrew
- Zapadna medonosna pčelaCroatian
- Awawa baaratehts
- HáziméhHungarian
- Մեղրատու մեղուArmenian
- LebahIndonesian
- Lebah maduIndonesian
- HunangsbýIcelandic
- Ape europeaItalian
- セイヨウミツバチJapanese
- Tawon undhuhanJavanese
- Бал арасыKazakh
- 꿀벌Korean
- 양봉꿀벌Korean
- Бал аарыKyrgyz
- HunnegbeiLuxembourgish
- thuzhomidldn
- Vakarinė medunešė bitėLithuanian
- Naminė bitėLithuanian
- Medus biteLatvian
- Eiropas medus biteLatvian
- Rietumu medus biteLatvian
- Pi honiMāori
- honningbieNorwegian Bokmål
- Europeisk honningbieNorwegian Bokmål
- HoningbijDutch
- Afrikaanse honingbijDutch
- Europese honingbijDutch
- Westelijke honingbijDutch
- AamooOjibwa
- Pszczoła miodnaPolish
- ItalianaPortuguese
- Abelha-do-melPortuguese
- Abelha-domésticaPortuguese
- Abelha-europeiaPortuguese
- AlbinăRomanian
- Медоносная пчелаRussian
- යුරෝපීය මී මැස්සාSinhala
- včela medonosnáSlovak
- Medonosna čebelaSlovenian
- zahodna medonosna čebelaSlovenian
- BletaAlbanian
- Medonosna pčelaSerbian
- Медоносна пчелаSerbian
- tambiSwedish
- honungsbiSwedish
- Nyuki-asaliSwahili
- தேனீTamil
- Занбӯри асалTajik
- ผึ้งพันธุ์Thai
- Bal arısıTurkish
- Бджола медоноснаUkrainian
- AvaVenetian
- 意大利蜂Chinese
- 西方蜜蜂Chinese
Catalogue of LifeWikipediaiNaturalistTAXREFWikidataWoRMSIUCN Red List
Relatives of the western honey bee
Other species in the same genus Apis.
Giant honey bee
Apis dorsata
Asian honey bee
Apis cerana
Asian dwarf honey bee
Apis florea
Himalayan honey bee
Apis laboriosa
Black dwarf honey bee
Apis andreniformis
Red bee of Sabah
Apis koschevnikovi
CompareWestern honey bee vs Giant honey beeWestern honey bee vs Asian honey beeWestern honey bee vs Asian dwarf honey beeWestern honey bee vs Himalayan honey bee
Common questions
Each answer is written from the sourced facts on this page, and only where they hold the answer.
What kind of animal is the western honey bee?
The western honey bee is an insect in the bee subgroup. It belongs to the order Hymenoptera and the family Apidae.
What does the western honey bee eat?
Its main foods are nectar and pollen.
Is the western honey bee endangered?
The IUCN Red List classifies the western honey bee as Data Deficient (DD) in its global assessment.
How long does a western honey bee live?
Our sources report a lifespan of up to 8 years.
Which countries is the western honey bee recorded in?
Checklists record the western honey bee in Australia.
Who named Apis mellifera?
Apis mellifera was named by Linnaeus, 1758.
What other names does the western honey bee have?
Other English names are Honey bee, Drone-bee, Killer bee, European honey bee and Domestic honey bee.
Sources and how to cite this page
Data as of 2026-11-11. How this page is put together.
- Catalogue of Life eXtended Release · CC BY 4.0 · 2026-10-16 XR
Catalogue of Life (2026). Catalogue of Life eXtended Release, version 2026-10-16 XR. Catalogue of Life Foundation, Amsterdam, Netherlands. https://doi.org/10.48580/dgzlf - Wikimedia Commons · per file (CC0 / public domain / CC BY green, CC BY-SA amber, anything else not displayed) · 2026-11-11
Wikimedia Commons contributors. Wikimedia Commons. https://commons.wikimedia.org (each file credited to its author under its own licence). - Wikidata · CC0 1.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikidata contributors. Wikidata. https://www.wikidata.org (data retrieved via the Wikidata Query Service). - Wikipedia (English) · CC BY-SA 4.0 · 2026-11-11
Wikipedia contributors. Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. https://en.wikipedia.org (text under CC BY-SA 4.0; each block names its article and revision).
Embed a card for this animal on your own site
Copy this code. The card shows the photo with its credit, key facts and a link back to this page.
CreatureData. (2026). Western honey bee (Apis mellifera). Retrieved from https://creaturedata.com/animals/western-honey-bee
“Western honey bee (Apis mellifera).” CreatureData, 2026, https://creaturedata.com/animals/western-honey-bee.
@misc{western_honey_bee_2026,
title = {Western honey bee (Apis mellifera)},
author = {{CreatureData}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://creaturedata.com/animals/western-honey-bee},
note = {Data as of 2026-11-11}
}