File:Swarm_of_Africanized_honey_bees.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- taxon
- Parent taxon
- African bee
- Image
- Apis mellifera scutellata 1355021.jpg
Show 3 more facts
- taxon rank
- subspecies
- Commons category
- Africanized bee
- taxon name
- Apis mellifera scutellata ×
Sources (2)
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
The Africanized bee, also known as the Africanized honey bee (AHB) and colloquially as the "killer bee", is a hybrid of the western honey bee (Apis mellifera), produced originally by crossbreeding of the African honey bee (A. m. scutellata) with various European honey bee subspecies such as the Italian honey bee (A. m. ligustica) and the Iberian honey bee (A. m. iberiensis).
The African honey bee was first introduced to Brazil in 1956 to increase honey production, but 26 swarms escaped quarantine in 1957. Since then, the hybrid has spread throughout South America and arrived in North America in 1985. Hives were found in southern Texas, United States, in 1990.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Africanized bee” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.