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
Honey Bee Genome Sequencing Consortium genes for immunity, detoxification and the development of the cuticula The population genetic analysis showed Africa as the origin and hypothesized that the spread into Europe happened in at least two independent waves. Data from the scientific collaboration is made available on Beebase led by Texas A&M University. BeeSpace led by the University of Illinois is an effort to complete a web navigable catalog of related information. Honey Bee Genome Sequencing Consortium The Honey Bee Genome Sequencing Consortium is an international collaborative group of genomics scientists, scientific organisations and universities trying to decipher the genome sequences of the honey bee