Africanized honey bees, known colloquially as " killer bees ," are some hybrid varieties of the Western honey bee species, ( Apis mellifera ), produced originally by cross-breeding of the African honey bee A. m. scutellata, with various European honey bees such as the Italian bee A. m. ligustica and the Iberian bee A. m. iberiensis.

Small swarms of Africanized bees are capable of taking over European honey bee hives by invading the hive and establishing their own queen after killing the European queen.

The Africanized honey bees in the Western Hemisphere are of mixed descent from 26 Tanganyikan queen bees of A. m. scutellata, accidentally released by a replacement bee-keeper in 1957 near Rio Claro, São Paulo, in the southeast of Brazil, from hives operated by biologist Warwick E. Kerr, who had interbred honey bees from Europe and southern Africa.

Map showing the spread of Africanized honey bees in the United States from 1990 to 2003

However, discoveries of the Africanized bees in southern Louisiana indicate this subspecies has penetrated this barrier, In October 2010, a 73-year-old man was killed by a swarm of Africanized honey bees while clearing brush on his south Georgia property, as determined by Georgia's Department of Agriculture.

Several researchers and beekeepers describe a general trait of the African subspecies Apis mellifera scutellata, classified by Lepeletier, 1836-( African honey bee ) Central and West Africa, which is absconding, where the Africanized honeybee colonies abscond the hive in times when food-stores are low, unlike the European colonies which tend to die in the hive.

Population genetics analysis of Africanized honey bees in the United States, using a materially inherited genetic marker, found 12 distinct mitotypes, and the amount of genetic variation observed supports the idea that there have been multiple introductions of AHB into the United States.

The sting of the Africanized Honey Bee is no more potent than another variety of honey bee, and they have a similar appearance.

What makes Africanized honey bees more dangerous is that they are more easily provoked, quick to swarm, attack in greater numbers, and pursue their victims for greater distances.

* Africanized bee, a hybrid of the African honey bee with various European honey bees

Colonies of honey bees often escape into the wild from managed apiaries when they swarm ; their behavior, however, is no different from their behavior " in captivity ", until and unless they breed with other feral honey bees of a different genetic stock, which may lead them to become more docile or more aggressive ( see Africanized bees ).

For example, feral honey bee populations in the US have dropped about 90 % in the past 50 years, except for the Southwest where they have been replaced by Africanized bees.

The Africanized bee in the western hemisphere is directly descended from 26 Tanzanian queen bees ( A. m. scutellata ) accidentally released by a replacement bee-keeper in 1957 near Uberlândia, Minas Gerais State in the southeast of Brazil from hives operated by Kerr, who had interbred honey bees from Europe and southern Africa.

These bees are endangered due to massive deforestation, altered agricultural practices ( especially insecticides ), and changing beekeeping practices with the arrival of the Africanized honey bee, which produces much greater honey crops.

Furthermore, there are flora that the Africanized honey bees do not visit, such as those in the tomato family, and several forest trees and shrubs, which rely on the native stingless bees for pollination.

There has already been a decline in populations of native flora in areas where stingless bees have been displaced by Africanized honey bees.

* The Africanized bee is accidentally released in Brazil.

An Africanized bee extracts nectar from a flower as pollen grains stick to its body in Tanzania

An Africanized bee extracts nectar from a flower as pollen grains stick to its body in Tanzania

An Africanized bee colony can remain agitated longer and may attack up to a quarter of a mile away from the hive.

# REDIRECT Africanized bee

# REDIRECT Africanized bee

The Buckfast bee of today also contains heritage from two African rare and docile African stocks A. m. sahariensis and the A. m. monticola, but not the " Africanized " A. m.

A likely cause of " hot " hives in subsequent generations is the introduction of Africanized bee genetics being introduced either to the mother queen or to the daughter queen via local Africanized drones.

# REDIRECT Africanized bee

The decline of the species is attributed to hunting and trapping of the birds, destruction of its habitat, and the introduction of the Africanized bee, which competes for nesting sites and kills breeding individuals at their nests.

* Africanized bee-a hybrid bee with characteristics unsuitable for beekeeping

Brown moved on a continuum of blues and gospel-based forms and styles to a profoundly " Africanized " approach to music making.

Africanized bees ( known colloquially as " killer bees ") are hybrids between European stock and one of the African subspecies A. m. scutellata ; they are often more aggressive than and do not create as much of a surplus as European bees, but are more resistant to disease and are better foragers.

Novel hybrid strains of domestic and re-domesticated Africanized bees combine high resilience to tropical conditions and good yields.

Moe is often engaged in shady or illegal activities at his tavern, including smuggling pandas and orcas, imprisoning Hans Moleman under the floor of the bar, hosting Russian roulette games, operating an unlicensed casino, serving liquor without a license ( the liquor license he had was from 1973, signed by Moe himself, and only valid in Rhode Island ), running a speakeasy during Springfield's brief flirtation with prohibition, performing unlicensed surgery, and housing Africanized bees.

As of 2002, the Africanized honeybees had spread from Brazil south to northern Argentina and north to Central America, Trinidad ( West Indies ), Mexico, Texas, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Florida, and southern California.

As the Africanized honeybee migrates further north, colonies are interbreeding with European honeybees.

Thus Africanized bees are expected to be a hazard mostly in the Southern States of the United States, reaching as far north as the Chesapeake Bay in the east.

Africanized bees have slightly shorter wings, which can be reliably recognized only by performing a statistical analysis on micro-measurements of a substantial sample.

a marvelous arrangement, for it provides exactly what the bee queens need to make their beebread, a combination of honey and pollen with which the young of all species are fed.

W. H. Roscher thinks that both nectar and ambrosia were kinds of honey, in which case their power of conferring immortality would be due to the supposed healing and cleansing powers of honey, and because fermented honey ( mead ) preceded wine as an entheogen in the Aegean world ; on some Minoan seals, goddesses were represented with bee faces ( compare Merope and Melissa ).

Other words thought by some Latter-day Saints to derive from the Adamic language include deseret (" honey bee ", see Ether 2: 3 and Ahman (" God ").

The best-known bee species is the European honey bee, which, as its name suggests, produces honey, as do a few other types of bee.

It is estimated that one third of the human food supply depends on insect pollination, most of which is accomplished by bees, especially the domesticated European honey bee.

Monoculture and the massive decline of many bee species ( both wild and domesticated ) have increasingly caused honey bee keepers to become migratory so that bees can be concentrated in seasonally varying high-demand areas of pollination.

A honey bee queen may lay 2000 eggs per day during spring buildup, but she also must lay 1000 to 1500 eggs per day during the foraging season, mostly to replace daily casualties, most of which are workers dying of old age.

Morphology ( biology ) | Morphology of a female honey bee

In 2009 some reports from the US suggested that 1 / 3 of the honey bee colonies did not survive the winter, though normal winter losses are known to be around 25 %.

In 2005, Michael Dickinson and his Caltech colleagues studied honey bee flight with the assistance of high-speed cinematography and a giant robotic mock-up of a bee wing.

* Colony collapse disorder, a phenomenon involving the abrupt disappearance of the worker bees in a beehive or Western honey bee colony

A honey bee on Calyx ( botany ) | calyx of goldenrod

By contriving for bee swarms to nest in artificial hives, people have been able to semidomesticate the insects, and harvest excess honey.

The painting is a Mesolithic rock painting, showing two honey-hunters collecting honey and honeycomb from a wild bee nest.

Pliny the Elder devotes considerable space in his book Naturalis Historia to the bee and honey, and its many uses.

In the book " Golden Rules of Business Success " written by Fan Li ( or Tao Zhu Gong ) during the Spring and Autumn Period, there are some parts mentioning the art of beekeeping and the importance of the quality of the wooden box for bee keeping that can affect the quality of its honey.