Western honey bee
Amazing fact
Worker European honey bees build hexagonal cells from wax they secrete.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web
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An illustration based on the real animal.
A little discovery to share.
Worker European honey bees build hexagonal cells from wax they secrete.
THE REAL WORLD
The real Western honey bee
- Scientific name
- Apis mellifera
- Japanese name
- セイヨウミツバチ
- Group
- Insects
- Class
- Insecta
- Order
- Hymenoptera
- Family
- Apidae
- Genus
- Apis
A honey bee native to Europe, western Asia and Africa. Today it is also found all over Japan.
Its hind legs have pollen baskets. Pollen sticks to its body while it drinks nectar, so it helps pollinate flowers.
A worker that finds good nectar tells its nestmates where it is with a special flying dance.
How the Western honey bee lives
Workers forage at flowers during daylight. They pass collected nectar to younger workers in the nest. The younger workers feed nectar to other bees or process it into honey. In cold weather, workers and the queen cluster together and warm themselves.
University of Michigan Animal Diversity WebBasic data
- Size
- 10–20 mm
- Diet
- Pollen and nectar
- Range
- Europe, western Asia and Africa
Where the Western honey bee has been recorded
Records: GBIF.org (CC0 and CC BY 4.0 records, retrieved 2026-11-07). Map: Natural EarthSee the records on GBIF
Watch wild animals from a distance. Do not touch or feed them, and take care of the places where they live.
Names around the world
- 日本語
- セイヨウミツバチ
- 简体中文
- 西方蜜蜂
- 繁體中文
- 意大利蜂
- 한국어
- 양봉꿀벌
- Español
- Abeja europea
- Français
- Abeille européenne
- Deutsch
- Westliche Honigbiene
- Português (Brasil)
- Abelha-europeia
- Italiano
- Ape europea
- हिन्दी
- पश्चिमी मधु मक्खी
- العربية
- نحل العسل الغربي
- Bahasa Indonesia
- Lebah madu barat
- Tiếng Việt
- Ong mật phương Tây
- Русский
- Медоносная пчела
- Türkçe
- Bal arısı
- ไทย
- ผึ้งพันธุ์
Names come from Wikidata and iNaturalist records. Where a language has no recorded name, we use the scientific name.
Sources and how we check
- University of Michigan Animal Diversity Web — Apis melliferaChecked: 2026-11-03
- 国土交通省 太田川河川事務所 — 太田川生物誌 セイヨウミツバチChecked: 2026-11-03
We check each fact against its source. The illustrations simplify how the real animal looks.
The classification (class, order, family, genus) follows Wikidata records, checked against GBIF. Classifications can change as research goes on.
The basic data are the values given in each source. They vary with how the animal is measured, whether it is male or female, and whether it lives in the wild or in captivity.
This page was translated from the original Japanese with the help of AI.
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