5472 x 3648 px | 46,3 x 30,9 cm | 18,2 x 12,2 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
28 maggio 2014
Altre informazioni:
Honey bees (or honeybees) are bees of the genus Apis, primarily distinguished by the production and storage of honey and the construction of perennial, colonial nests from wax. Honey bees are the only extant members of the tribe Apini, all in the genus Apis. Currently, only seven species of honey bee are recognized, with a total of 44 subspecies, though historically, from six to 11 species have been recognised. Honey bees represent only a small fraction of the roughly 20, 000 known species of bees. Some other types of related bees produce and store honey, but only members of the genus Apis are true honey bees. 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 means honey-bearing. As of October 28, 2006, the Honey Bee Genome Sequencing Consortium fully sequenced and analyzed the genome of Apis mellifera. Since 2007, media attention has focused on colony collapse disorder, a decline in European honey bee colonies in various parts of the world. The western honey bee is native to the continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa. As of the early 1600s, the insect was introduced to North America, with subsequent introductions of other European subspecies two centuries later. Since then, they have spread throughout the Americas. Western honey bees differentiated into geographic races as they spread from Africa into Eurasia. Currently, 28 subspecies based on these geographic variations are recognized.[citation needed] All races are cross-fertile, though reproductive adaptations may make crossing unlikely. The 28 subspecies can be assigned to one of four major branches based on work by Ruttner, and subsequently confirmed by analysis of mitochondrial DNA. African subspecies are assigned to branch A, northwest European subspecies to branch M, southwest European subspecies to branch C, and Mideast subspecies to branch O.
