Western honey bee Since workers are not fully sexually developed, they do not mate with drones and thus can only produce haploid (male) offspring. Queens and workers have a modified ovipositor, a stinger, with which they defend the hive. Unlike bees of any other genus and the queens of their own species, the stinger of worker honey bees is barbed. Contrary to popular belief, a bee does not always die soon after stinging; this misconception is based on the fact that a bee will usually die after stinging a human or other mammal. The stinger and its venom sac, with musculature and a
Honey bee single or a few exposed combs on high tree limbs, on cliffs, and sometimes on buildings. They can be very fierce. Periodically robbed of their honey by human "honey hunters", colonies are easily capable of stinging a human being to death if provoked. Eastern "Apis" species include three or four species, including "A. koschevnikovi", "Apis nigrocincta", and "A. cerana". The genetics of the western honey bee "A. mellifera" are unclear. The Koschevnikov's bee ("Apis koschevnikovi") is often referred to in the literature as the “red bee of Sabah;” however "A. koschevnikovi" is pale reddish in Sabah State, Borneo, Malaysia, but