Honeybee

The honeybee is a highly social insect in the family Apidae, famous for living in large, organized colonies that can number in the tens of thousands of individuals, all cooperating to build wax comb, rear young, and store honey. Native to Europe, Africa, and western Asia, it has been introduced by humans nearly worldwide because of its unmatched value as a managed pollinator and honey producer.

A honeybee colony consists of a single reproductive queen, tens of thousands of sterile female workers, and, seasonally, male drones whose sole role is mating with new queens. This division of labor, along with complex behaviors like the waggle dance used to communicate the location of food sources, makes the honeybee one of the most studied social insects in the world.

Ecologically and economically, honeybees are enormously important as generalist pollinators of countless flowering plants and agricultural crops, and their honey and beeswax have been harvested by humans for thousands of years, making this species one of the most familiar and recognizable insects on the planet.

• Slender, moderately fuzzy body with alternating bands of golden-brown or amber and darker brown or black on the abdomen.
• Two pairs of translucent wings, folded flat along the back at rest, and large compound eyes.
• Hind legs of worker bees are flattened and equipped with a pollen basket (corbicula) used to carry pollen back to the hive.
• Body shape is more slender and less rounded than a bumble bee, and less hairy overall, with a smoother, more streamlined abdomen.
• Lookalikes include yellowjackets and hover flies; honeybees are distinguished by their fuzzy body, pollen baskets on the hind legs, and less glossy, more matte coloring compared to the smooth, shiny bands of a yellowjacket.

Found virtually worldwide due to widespread management by beekeepers, as well as feral colonies nesting in tree hollows, wall cavities, and rock crevices. Active whenever temperatures are warm enough for flight, typically from early spring through fall in temperate climates, foraging in gardens, meadows, farmland, and orchards wherever flowering plants are available.

Honeybees are eusocial, living in permanent colonies with a cooperative division of labor among a queen, workers, and drones. Workers forage for nectar and pollen, communicate food locations to nestmates through the waggle dance, and process nectar into honey stored in wax comb cells for use during periods when flowers are scarce. The species is a critical pollinator, transferring pollen between flowers as it forages, and colonies defend their nest and food stores, with workers capable of stinging in defense of the hive.

The queen lays eggs singly into wax comb cells; each egg hatches into a legless larva that is fed by nurse workers before the cell is capped for pupation. After metamorphosis, adults emerge and take on age-based roles within the colony, progressing from in-hive duties to outside foraging. Colonies persist year-round as a superorganism, with the queen laying continuously during warmer months and the colony clustering together for warmth during winter; new queens and colonies arise periodically through swarming.