Western honey bee "Apis mellifera" is thought to have originated in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Western honey bee The western honey bee or European honey bee ("Apis mellifera") is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bee worldwide. The genus name "Apis" is Latin for "bee", and "mellifera" is the Latin for "honey-bearing", referring to the species' production of honey. Like all honey bees, the western honey bee is eusocial, creating colonies with a single fertile female (or "queen"), many normally non-reproductive females or "workers," and small proportion of fertile males or "drones." Individual colonies can house tens of thousands of
Round dance (honey bee) Round dance (honey bee) Round dance is a term used to describe the communicative behaviour of a foraging honey bee ("Apis mellifera"), in which she flies over the comb in close circles, alternating right and then left. The round dance indicates that the forager has located a profitable food source close to the hive. When the food source is relatively far away (over 50 meters), the round dance transitions into the waggle dance. By performing the round dance, the forager communicates information pertaining to the food source's distance and direction from the hive to the follower bees. Elements of the