biology

List of Apis mellifera subspecies

List of Apis mellifera subspecies is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand List of Apis mellifera subspecies rather than just read about it. In short: Apis mellifera, the western honey bee, has many subspecies. The most recent taxonomic revision in 1999 recognized 28 subspecies and three additional subspecies have been described since then (Apis mellifera pomonella in 2003, Apis mellifera simensis in 2011, and Apis mellifera sinisxinyuan in 2016; see below).

Key takeaways

List of Apis mellifera subspecies belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect List of Apis mellifera subspecies to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of List of Apis mellifera subspecies from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Apis mellifera, the western honey bee, has many subspecies. The most recent taxonomic revision in 1999 recognized 28 subspecies and three additional subspecies have been described since then (Apis mellifera pomonella in 2003, Apis mellifera simensis in 2011, and Apis mellifera sinisxinyuan in 2016; see below). Other sources recognize as many as 33 subspecies.

Subspecies of Africa Apis mellifera adansonii, classified by Latreille, 1804 (the West African honey bee) found in Nigeria and Burkina Faso. Apis mellifera capensis, classified by Eschscholtz, 1822 (the Cape honey bee) found in southern South Africa. Apis mellifera intermissa, classified by von Buttel-Reepen, 1906 (the Tellian honey bee) found in the northwestern coast of Africa from Tunisia, along Libya and westerly into Morocco (north of the Atlas Mountains. Apis mellifera jemenitica, classified by Ruttner, 1976 (the Arabian honey bee) found in Somalia, Uganda, Sudan and Yemen. Apis mellifera lamarckii, classified by Cockerell, 1906 (the Egyptian honey bee) found in the Nile Valley of Egypt and Sudan, domesticated before 2600 BC. This mitotype can also be identified in honey bees from California. Apis mellifera litorea, classified by Smith, 1961 (the East African coastal honey bee) found in the low elevations of East Africa. Apis mellifera monticola, classified by Smith, 1961 (the East African mountain honey bee) found in the high altitude mountains with elevation between 1,500 and 3,100 meters of East Africa, such as (Mt. Elgon, Mt. Kilimanjaro, Mt. Kenya and Mt. Meru). Apis mellifera ruttneri, classified by Sheppard, Arias, Grech & Meixner in 1997 (the Maltese honey bee) endemic to the Maltese islands. Apis mellifera sahariensis, classified by Baldensperger, 1932 (the Saharan honey bee) found in northwestern Africa, on the southern side of the Atlas Mountains. (the existence of this subspecies has previously been questioned, possibly having been misidentified with A. m. intermissa). Apis mellifera scutellata, classified by Lepeletier, 1836 (the East African lowland honey bee) found in Central and East Africa; also as hybridized populations in South America, Central America and the Southern United States. In an effort to address concerns by Brazilian beekeepers and to increase honey production in Brazil, Warwick Kerr, a Brazilian geneticist, was asked by Brazilian federal and state authorities in 1956 to import several East African lowland queens from Tanzania to Piracicaba, São Paulo State in southern Brazil. Due to a mishap, some of the queens escaped. The East African lowland queens' virgin daughters mated with local European honey bee drones and produced what is now known as the Africanized honey bee in South and North America. The intense struggle for survival of western honey bees in Sub-Saharan Africa is given as the reason that this subspecies is proactive in defending the hive and also more likely to abandon an existing hive and abscond to a more secure location. They direct more of their energies to defensive behaviors and less of their energies to honey storage. East African lowland honey bees are leather-colored and difficult to distinguish by eye from the darker strains of the Italian honey bee. Apis mellifera simensis, classified by Meixner, Leta, Koeniger and Fuchs, 2011 (the Ethiopian honey bee) found in Ethiopia. Apis mellifera unicolor, classified by Latreille, 1804 (the Madagascar honey bee) endemic to the island of Madagascar.

Subspecies of the Middle East and Asia Apis mellifera anatoliaca, classified by Maa, 1953 (the Anatolian honey bee) its range is in central Anatolia in Turkey. Apis mellifera caucasica, classified by Pollmann, 1889 (the Caucasian honey bee) found in the central Caucasus and towards the Turkish Black Sea coast. Apis mellifera cypria, classified by Pollmann, 1879 (the Cyprus honey bee) endemic to the island of Cyprus. Apis mellifera meda, classified by Skorikov, 1929 (the Median honey bee), more common in Iran and Iraq, but its range extends into southeastern Turkey and northern Syria. Apis mellifera mellifera, classified by Linnaeus, 1758 (the European dark honey bee) originating in Central Asia and migrating throughout Europe after the last ice age, having the largest geographic range of all European honey bees. It was domesticated in Europe and imported into Great Britain during Roman times and Ireland during Christian times. Hives were later exported to North America in the colonial era in 1622 where they were referred to as the English fly by the Native American Indians. In 2014-2017 a European wide survey was conducted with 621 colonies, which included the various subspecies kept by beekeepers, it found that A. m. mellifera was the most aggressive, had the highest swarming tendency and the lowest hygienic behaviour - a trait closely linked with Varroa sensitive hygiene. Apis mellifera pomonella, classified by Sheppard & Meixner, 2003 (the Tian Shan honey bee) endemic to the Tian Shan Mountains in Central Asia. Apis mellifera remipes, classified by Gerstäcker, 1862 (the Armenian honey bee) found in the region of Armenia. Apis mellifera sinisxinyuan, classified by C.Chen, Z.Liu, Q.Pan, X.Chen, H.Wang, H.Guo, S.Liu, H.Lu, S.Tian, R.Li and W.Shi, 2016 (the Xinyuan honey bee) discovered in 2016 in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, this subspecies has a range that is the farthest east known for the species. Apis mellifera syriaca, classified by Skorikov, 1929 (the Syrian honey bee) found between Turkey and Egypt.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with List of Apis mellifera subspecies

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what List of Apis mellifera subspecies claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to List of Apis mellifera subspecies before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about List of Apis mellifera subspecies ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of List of Apis mellifera subspecies

In research: List of Apis mellifera subspecies appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses List of Apis mellifera subspecies in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: List of Apis mellifera subspecies is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Lists of bees, Lists of breeds, Taxonomic lists (subspecies), so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for List of Apis mellifera subspecies outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “List of Apis mellifera subspecies” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study List of Apis mellifera subspecies in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what List of Apis mellifera subspecies means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain List of Apis mellifera subspecies out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is List of Apis mellifera subspecies in simple terms?

Why does List of Apis mellifera subspecies matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study List of Apis mellifera subspecies?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on List of Apis mellifera subspecies.