Honey Bee

Apis mellifera

a honey bee, Apis mellifera, at flowers on Menangai Crater, Kenya, March 2013. Photo © by Michael Plagens

Observed in open plantation forest/pasture on the rim of Menangai Crater, Kenya. March 2013.

a honey bee, Apis mellifera, at Eldoret, Kenya, Dec. 2015. Photo © by Michael Plagens

From Wikipdeia: Honey bees (or honeybees) are a subset of bees in the genus Apis, primarily distinguished by the production and storage of honey and the construction of perennial, colonial nests out of wax. Honey bees are the only extant members of the tribe Apini, all in the genus Apis. Currently, there are only seven recognised species of honey bee with a total of 44 subspecies, though historically, anywhere from six to eleven species have been recognised. Honey bees represent only a small fraction of the approximately 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.

Apidae -- Bee Family

a honey bee, Apis mellifera, Kenya, Dec 2015. Photo © by Michael Plagens

These more coloful bees are fetching water which may be used for evaporative cooling the hive. Eldoret, Kenya. Dec. 2015. The bee with very dark abdomen (A. m. scutellata?) at left was at the same location.

More Information:


Kenya Natural History

Copyright Michael J. Plagens, page created 30 August 2013,
updated 20 June 2016.