Common (or European)
Apis mellifera, the most commonly domesticated species, is the third insect to have its genome mapped. It originated in Tropical Africa and spread from there to Northern Europe and East into Asia. It is also called the Western honey bee. There are many sub-species that have adapted to the environment of their geographic and climatic area. Behavior, color and anatomy can be quite different from one sub-species or race to another. In 1622, first European colonists brought the sub-species Apis mellifera mellifera to the Americas. Many of the crops that depend on honey bees for pollination have also been imported since colonial times. Escaped swarms (known as wild bees, but actually feral) spread rapidly as far as the Great Plains, usually preceding the colonists. The Native Americans called the honey bee "the white man's fly". Honey bees did not naturally cross the Rocky Mountains; they were carried by ship to California in the early 1850s. The so-called "killer bee" is a strain of this species, with ancestral stock of African origin (thus often called "Africanized"). In early 2007, abnormally high die-offs (30-70% of hives) of Western honey bee colonies in the US were attributed to a condition dubbed "Colony Collapse Disorder".
Dwarf and Eastern
(Wikipedia)
Apis florea and Apis cerana are small honey bees of southern and southeastern Asia. The former makes very small, exposed nests in trees and shrubs, while the latter makes nests in cavities and is sometimes managed in hives in a similar fashion to Apis mellifera, though on a much smaller and regionalized scale. The stings of A. florea are often not capable of penetrating human skin, so the hive and swarms can be handled with minimal protection.
Giant
Apis dorsata, the giant honey bee, is native to south and southeastern Asia, and usually makes its exposed combs on high tree limbs, or on cliffs, and sometimes on buildings. It is wild and can be very fierce. It is robbed of its honey periodically by human honey gatherers, a practice known as honey hunting. Its colonies are easily capable of stinging a human being to death when provoked.
Beekeeping
Two species of honey bee, A. mellifera and A. cerana, are often maintained, fed, and transported by beekeepers. Modern hives also enable beekeepers to transport bees, moving from field to field as the crop needs pollinating and allowing the beekeeper to charge for the pollination services they provide, revising the historical role of the self-employed beekeeper, and favoring large-scale commercial operations. For further information see the main article, or the articles for these species.
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