Western Honey Bee
The Western honey bee or European honey bee (Apis mellifera)
is a species of honey bee. The genus Apis is Latin for "bee",
and mellifera comes from the Latin meli- "honey" and ferre "to
bear" — hence the scientific name means "honey-bearing bee".
The name was coined
in 1758 by Carolus Linnaeus who, realizing that the bees do not
bear honey, but nectar, tried to correct it to Apis mellifica
("honey-making bee") in a subsequent publication.
However, according
to the rules of synonymy in zoological
nomenclature, the older name has precedence.
Some people who are unaware of this still
use the incorrect subsequent spelling. As of
October 28, 2006, the Honey Bee Genome
Sequencing Consortium fully sequenced and
analyzed the genome of Apis mellifera. In
2007 media attention focused on Colony
Collapse Disorder, a decline in Western
honey bee colonies in a minority of regions
of North America.
|
