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 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