![]() | This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Archive 1 |
The discussion of A. mellifera caucasica includes a technical term that may not be familiar to all readers. "PROPOLIZE: To fill with propolis, or bee glue; used to strengthen the comb and seal cracks, it also has antimicrobial properties." [1] Walter Siegmund (talk) 02:12, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
Really just added this as a heads-up for the recent sequencing of the honeybee. The three big items which need incorporating are,
Genetic evidence for Africa bee migrations to Europe.
Sequencing shows large number of genes for smell and low number for taste
e.g. Seen on New Scientist and National Geo and Nature, the honeybee has 170 genes for odour receptors. This is more than the two other insects which have been sequenced so far, the fruit fly with 62 and the mosquito with 79. This is in contrast to the honeybees only having 10 taste receptors compared with about 70 in the other insects. Hunny tastes so yummy - Pooh.
Master Regulator genes that manage bee behaviour Ttiotsw 09:10, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
Too many editors were placing content that specifically and exclusively referred to A. mellifera in the Honey bee article; I have moved all of these setions and their references and links here, where they belong. The Honey bee article should be reserved for content that refers to all of the species of Apis collectively; content regarding A. mellifera should, in the future, be placed here, or on the pages for the different subspecies, or different mellifera-related topical pages. Peace, Dyanega 00:56, 2 November 2006 (UTC)
Bob Parks of the University of Maryland claims the bee's genome is insufficiently complex to allow for bee communication. http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN06/wn110306.html 64.81.192.156 01:05, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
"There are seven basic types of beehive: skeps, Langstroth hives, top-bar hives, box hives, log gums, D.E. hives and miller hives."
This is hardly a complete list. Also, what is a "miller" hive? I've never heard of it before. You don't have British Standard, WBC, Smith etc. But to me there are really only two main "types" of beehives. Fixed comb (skeps, gums, box hives etc.), and movable comb (Top Bar Hives, British Standard, Langstroth, Smith, WBC etc.). Movable comb can be subdivided into vertical and horizontal (stacked up boxes vs "coffin" hives). And those could each be divided into those using frames and those using only a top bar. I'll bet without much trouble I could come up with a very long list of hives currently in use in the world which would be much longer than seven. There are certainly more WBC and BS and Smith hives in the world than DE hives (although I've had DE hives and have never had WBC, BS, or Smith hives). If you want a complete list, then let's go for a really complete list. If you want to list the most common ones among English speaking beekeepers, the only two that would make that list would probably be Langstroth and British Standard. If you wanted to add more, WBC and Smith would probably be next on the list.
Michael Bush ( talk) 22:10, 6 February 2008 (UTC)
I thought someone might be interested to incorporate this image in the article which I have uploaded on Commons, mainly for use in the German Wikipedia. Cheers, -- Dietzel65 ( talk) 08:45, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
Google searches:
"european honey bee" -wikipedia -- 31,200 results
"western honey bee" -wikipedia -- 5,360 results —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.199.198.59 ( talk) 02:42, 30 June 2008 (UTC)
The Honey Section seems to be more about the honey and less about the bee.
Valserian ( talk) 01:13, 28 October 2008 (UTC)
In my opinion the image proposed does a better job of illustrating the honey bee than the current image. If no objections in 12 hours, then I will be bold and make the changes. -- Muhammad (talk) 17:32, 4 May 2009 (UTC)
Apis mellifera is not another name for the european honeybee, which is also native to africa, asia, and the middle east. this needs to be moved to western honey bee, or we need a new article for the whole species. Michael1115 ( talk) 16:51, 17 July 2010 (UTC)
I have just moved this article content from "Western Honey Bee" to "European Honey Bee" -- the much more common name.
Google searches:
"european honey bee" -wikipedia -- 31,200 results
"western honey bee" -wikipedia -- 5,360 results —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.199.198.59 ( talk • contribs)
Despite more google searches, you have given this article a title which is unquestionably wrong. The european races of apis mellifera are only a few of them. I'm moving it back, if no one objects. Michael1115 ( talk) 16:55, 17 July 2010 (UTC)
The article has a over long tag. It seems fine to me - not more than most thorough articles. I would have thought it was short if anything (given a chunk of it is lists). Any objection to removing it? Spanglej ( talk) 02:02, 2 August 2010 (UTC)
Just looking at the subspecies in the sidebar, there are some (especially iberica and saharensis) that I wouldn't really consider to be North-Western Europe, more South-Western. Likewise, carnica, cecropia, and macecdonia seem more Eastern/South-Eastern than South-Western Europe. I don't know if there's an official designation of European bee areas, but it doesn't seem to make sense to me. Keepstherainoff ( talk) 10:58, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
This is article is fairly well-written and quite interesting. I have a few questions and a comment.
1. How do queens get killed by worker bees?
2. How do two queens fight to death?
3. "Honey bees use special pheromones, or chemical communication, for almost all behaviors of life" Should it be "chemical communicators"?
4. "Honey bees are an excellent animal to study with regard to behavior because they are abundant and familiar to most people. An animal that is disregarded every day has very specific behaviors that go unnoticed by the normal person". These sentences are strange. I would remove them (let me know what you think).
ICE77 ( talk) 04:42, 17 March 2011 (UTC)
Rossami, thanks a lot. You wrote truly interesting stuff on some truly interesting points, especially 1. and 2. Regarding 3., I would write "Honey bees use chemical communicators such as pheromones for almost all behaviors of life". For 4., we could use some of your comments and mix them with the original text to clarify and convey the correct idea.
ICE77 ( talk) 23:34, 29 March 2011 (UTC)
The article implies that there were no honeybees in the Americas until the arrival of Europeans. We're told that if the honeybees die out, agriculture will fail. How did plants reproduce in North America before honeybees arrived? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.82.216.91 ( talk) 03:15, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
![]() | This article is the subject of an educational assignment at Washington University supported by the Wikipedia Ambassador Program during the 2012 Fall term. Further details are available on the course page. |
Hi all. I am currently participating in a school project to contribute to Wikipedia. I am learning a lot and would like to leave some comments regarding this article. Please feel free to respond.
This article on the western honey bee is a C-class quality article of mid-importance. Given the importance level and its links to genetics and the study of eusociality, it would be beneficial to raise the article quality to “Good”. Citations may be required for the count of the 28 subspecies mentioned in the geographical distribution and the assertion that 10% of colonies can have two queens. The taxonomical clarification in the first paragraph could be moved to a separate section after the Contents box in order to highlight the other aspects of importance. A portion of the section concerning drones could be removed: “They truly do not have a father….flying gametes.” The reason for this recommendation is that the prior sentences adequately convey this information. The section on “Breeding”, while detailed, can be abbreviated to a few examples in order to shorten the article. The section describing the shaking signal describes a detailed experiment. It could be shortened and also moved to the main article: “Bee learning and communication.” An additional aspect of the interaction between the queen and the worker bee is “worker policing.” This can be mentioned in the article after the discussion of the queen scent. A citation to studies done by Ratnieks and Visscher would supplement this addition.
GenesBrainsBehaviorNeuroscienceKL ( talk) 23:22, 22 September 2012 (UTC)
Update: I have added a section on Queen-Worker Conflict. Please leave comments on modifications needed.
GenesBrainsBehaviorNeuroscienceKL ( talk) 17:08, 27 September 2012 (UTC)
Hi I am also participating in a school project to contribute to Wikipedia.
This article contains a plethora of information, ranging from geographic distribution to biology and life cycle, to the honey it makes. The page has many different categories that seem to cover all of its bases. The life cycle was very detailed along with the inclusion of the different types of workers and their tasks. Some missing information that can be found in the book, "An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology," by Davies, Krebs, and West include the relations between queen and her offspring, and the offspring with each other. The analysis of the related coefficients shows that the queens are expected to try and suppress worker reproduction. A key study by Ratnieks and Visscher (1989) explains ‘worker policing,’ where they experimentally introduced male eggs that had been laid by either queen or worker. They found that the worker eggs had been removed or eaten by other workers, not the queen (they placed her behind a wire mesh). It’s believed that it’s a chemical cue on the queen laid eggs that makes the difference. So, worker policing provides an explanation why worker laid eggs are very rare. This is because other workers prefer their brothers to their nephews ( r=.25 > r=.125).
Under the Talk tab, there is an interesting discussion on how North American plants pollinated before the honey bees arrived from Europe. Agriculture wouldn’t fail if all honey bees disappeared, we would have to get used to a diet of primarily grains and other wind-pollinated crops. There would be a lot less meat (since the clover and alfalfa they eat is honeybee pollinated at agricultural scales) and the fruits and vegetables that we take for granted and consider essential for a balanced diet would be much more scarce and far more expensive.
Alexliu818 (
talk)
19:54, 25 September 2012 (UTC)
![]() | This article is the subject of an educational assignment at Washington University supported by the Wikipedia Ambassador Program during the 2012 Fall term. Further details are available on the course page. |
There is a mistake concerning the genus-species name origin. The name of the genus Apis is indeed Latin for bee. But mellifera is Greek from meli- (not mel!) meaning honey and -fera meaning to bring. At the article about Melissa (which is honey bee in Greek), it is stated that -fera is derived from Greek for wild beast. But -fera is actually derived from Latin for wild beast (e.g. modern word feral). In any case, unless there are any objections (which I can't see why), in 24h I will add the Greek origin of meli- and both probabilities of Greek or Latin origin for -fera. Kalambaki2 23:56, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
The current intro no longer makes sense. It first says "Apis mellifera" and then "tried later to correct it to Apis mellifera" and how the old name stuck. I trust someone knows how it should be... -- ASmartKid ( talk) 19:58, 3 December 2008 (UTC)
I am practically certain that the Latin for honey is not "meli". At the same time I am certain that the Greek for honey is "meli", since I'm Greek and I ate MELI on bread last night. The article is wrong concerning naming. 79.103.187.216 ( talk) 11:37, 21 December 2008 (UTC)
I think northwestern European and southwestern European subspecies should be merged into Europe. I don't see the point of keeping them separated.
ICE77 ( talk) 21:51, 31 January 2015 (UTC)
The Wikipedia article Colony Collapse Disorder treats that subject as a critical problem for honeybees, the environment and humans, while this article hardly mentions it. This should be reconciled by someone who knows more about bees than me.
Ttulinsky 05:35, 8 April 2015 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ttulinsky ( talk • contribs)
I just noticed a map has been made of the origin of apis mellifica, see https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apis_mellifera_distribution_map.svg can it be included in the article ?
It seems that although there are 28 subspecies, they all originated from Africa (I assume the maker of the map indicated the correct area in Africa). A map with the subspecies can be found at http://www.imkerpedia.nl/wiki/index.php/Ondersoorten_van_de_Apis_mellifera (perhaps this map can be linked). However, I also prefer the single location, and true origin the maker of the map has provided. 91.182.100.6 ( talk) 09:24, 5 June 2012 (UTC)
Overall, this is a very strong article, but a few organizational changes might improve it even further. One of the strengths of the article is its focus on beekeeping products such as honey and beeswax, which have vital economic value to humans. The extensive description of biology and life cycle is also an excellent way to start an article. However, an important category to add would be colony structure. While the article addresses the roles of drones and queens, it would be more logical if these distinctions, along with workers, occurred as sub-points under a larger single category of social structure. Additionally, the genome category should be separated out on its own and then a separate behavior section should be added that includes the relocated headings of communication and pheromones. Categories like social interactions and interactions with other species could then be added to the section as well to add more behavioral information and references. This would be a more logical way to organize a behavior section rather than under the nonsensical heading of genome. This article deserves the rating of high-importance as it is covers information on a pollinator species used for essential ecosystems services. The B-class rating could likely become A-class with slight reorganization and more elaboration on certain concepts like colony collapse disorder and pollinator decline, which should be a priority since this is rated as a high-importance article.
Mkfreiler ( talk) 20:11, 9 September 2015 (UTC)
This article was written comprehensively with an abundance of information on this bee species. One of the strengths of this article is the thorough section on Beekeeping, which emphasizes the importance of this bee species for honey production to humans. Something interesting I learned about this species is that there are seven different types of beehives this species can construct, all of which differentially impact colony health, wax, and honey production. Three categories that are missing in the outline include colony defense behavior, mating behavior, and nest recognition behavior. Colony defense behavior is important to include because it gives the reader insight to how this bee species would react to a predator or different invading bee species to protect its own nest. Mating behavior is important because it helps explain how this bee species sexually reproduces via the Queen/Drone interaction, which would also clarify how a Queen may sexually select from the drones (male bees). Nest recognition behavior is also important because it would explain how this bee species would be able to tell the difference between its own nest and other nests, as well as bees that behave differently when not at their home nest. Looking at the talk page, I agree with the B-class rating, but could easily become A-class once the article balances to have more information on inter- and intra-species behaviors (i.e. colony defense, nest recognition). Marcus.kwon ( talk) 22:38, 9 September 2015 (UTC)
This article is thorough and has distinct relevant sections that explain the geographical location, behavioral mechanisms, as well as the lifestyle of the Western Honey Bee. I learned about the mechanism behind making new queen bees, the genetic difference between male and female honey bees, and the “dancing” form of communication. I believe that one category that could have been added would be habitat. The authors of the article did mention geographical location; however, it was too broad, and only spoke of the continents in which honey bees are located and not of the physical habitat they live in. I also believe that sexual investment should have been another category in explaining the bias towards the production of male or female eggs. Another category would be colony defense. The article does talk about honey bee predators but not about how the colony counteracts attacks. I think that this article deserves its ranking as a B-class vital article to Science. Significant research has been done on the Honey Bee, and its species has been vital to the understanding of behavioral ecology amongst insects. Vsalazar258 ( talk) 03:55, 10 September 2015 (UTC)
Some areas that are missing that should be included are: kin selection, sex ratios, and predator defense. The queen-worker conflict section summarizes kin selection and sex ratios, but both these topics could be defined more. The predator section gives a good variety of predators, but doesn’t discuss anywhere how the honeybees defend themselves from these predators. Also, for organizational purposes, I think it would make sense to put the Genome section after Thermoregulation, and move the Honey Production section down with Beekeeping. Liz.yucknut ( talk) 10:46, 10 September 2015 (UTC)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to 2 external links on
Western honey bee. Please take a moment to review
my edit. If necessary, add {{
cbignore}}
after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add {{
nobots|deny=InternetArchiveBot}}
to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.
An editor has reviewed this edit and fixed any errors that were found.
Cheers.— cyberbot II Talk to my owner:Online 10:40, 24 January 2016 (UTC)
The first paragraph reads:
However, if you read the Honey bee article, it clearly says there are only seven recognized species of honey bees. Are we confusing species with subspecies? Tal.reichert ( talk) 21:24, 8 August 2016 (UTC)
The single-sentence second paragraph (in the opening section, right before the outline) states"
Actually, the decline in European honey bee colonies has been observed across the world. I am editing the sentence. Skyduster ( talk) 07:36, 17 March 2013 (UTC)
I added a Refimprove tag to the beekeeping section. Lack of references here is related to a dearth of references and inline citations on the beekeeping main page. If you improve here, please consider making similar improvements on the beekeeping main page. Cliff ( talk) 03:47, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
Statements "The queen lays all the eggs in a healthy colony" and "Workers are sterile females" are not exactly correct, since some workers actually participate in the reproduction as described in the "Queen-worker conflict" section and in related articles. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.168.151.39 ( talk • contribs)
The global distribution picture is misleading; it shows that Western Honey Bees don't live in the center of Africa or Alaska but I am most certain that this is not true. In the second paragraph of the the "life cycle" section it says that when the old queen leaves with a swarm that she takes two thirds of the adult population with her BUT in the "queens" section it says that the queen takes about half, this is repeated information that doesn't agree. There is repeating information within the "Queens" section as well and I believe it can be condensed. Besides that this is a very thorough article and I enjoyed reading it. There was some drama in the talk portion putting this article together but it looks like that have sorted it out, for now. It's a level-4 vital article in Biology and belongs to 2 wiki-projects. There is so much information in this article, it really goes in depth all about the Western Honey Bee, in class we have only mentioned it here and there. May I suggest adding pictures of the subspecies with corresponding links. When the temperature in the hive was discussed, was this referring to the average temperature of an overall standard box hive or the center of a brood cluster average?-- CKAbegg ( talk) 05:31, 25 February 2019 (UTC)
It's writing and tone is closer to a talk page debate section than an informative one. Worse, it makes claims that are not profided by the sources given, for example as it currently stands, it starts out as;
- then proceeds to give a couple of sources, none of which state this. In fact one of the source clearly states.
It follows up with a borderline tangent on a false assertion giving examples of wind polination and self polination. None of which are relevant to apis melifera. instead of writing which crops don'y need animal polination i propose adding the ones that do. Will be re-working the section a bit. And I'm open to suggestion in writing or tone since english isnt my first language. SWAGnificient ( talk) 05:04, 15 July 2019 (UTC)
This article in the right column at the top says: "Subspecies - 29 currently recognized, see list" and it points to List of Apis mellifera subspecies. The number of subspecies there is 31. Therefore, both numbers should be 31.
ICE77 ( talk) 05:24, 22 March 2020 (UTC)
"When a fertile female worker produces drones, a conflict arises between her interests and those of the queen. The worker shares one-half of her genes with the drone and one-quarter with her brothers, favouring her offspring over those of the queen. The queen shares one-half of her genes with her sons and one-quarter with the sons of fertile female workers"
the above is accurate, but i think it is not very well formulated for the laypersons understanding. "bees show a greater interest in raising the next generation of bees that share a greater a part of their genes with them. so the queen prefers raising her own daughters/sons who each own one-half of the queens genes as opposed to raising the offspring of her daughter the female worker who will each carry only one-quarter of the queens genes. from the point of view of the female worker bee she is interested the most in her own offspring who carry one-half of the egg laying female worker bee, while the female worker bee has on average only one-quarter genes in common with her sisters/brothers the offspring of the queen bee." something along these lines (i guess it is still far from perfect. (i try avoid using multiple expressions for the offspring like: drones, the drone, sons - in order to allow the reader to concentrate on the relationship and avoid initiating unnecessary musings about whether sons or drones or the drone should mean the same or are implying some subtle difference). also a brief mention of the idea of interest being in ensuring the creation of individuals that carry the most possible genes similar to those carried by the parent and thus preferring own offspring to brothers (50% gene similarity vs. 25%) makes understanding the argument easier. imho.
89.134.199.32 (
talk)
12:36, 31 May 2020 (UTC).
The purported range for Apis mellifera is shown by the figure File:Apis mellifera distribution map.svg, created in 2011 by User:Sémhur.
The source of data cited for that figure only appears to include land-based collection points, but the range map has been drawn to 'fill in' all of the gaps. (One also wonders if the map suffers from a lack of sampling that inadvertently 'erases' bees from much of Russia.)
This results in a somewhat implausible range map that includes vast swathes of the world's oceans. ( Point Nemo, more than 2600 km from any land, appears to be included.) While honeybees have been known to forage out to ranges of 10 or 15 km, I am unable to locate any evidence of their ability to travel more than a hundred-fold further. TenOfAllTrades( talk) 14:36, 31 January 2021 (UTC)
There may be some useful material in this recent Guardian article: ‘No one knew they existed’: wild heirs of lost British honeybee found at Blenheim. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:30, 8 November 2021 (UTC)
Is "mellifera" "honey bearing" or "honey making" ??? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:8003:E422:3C01:C923:40FA:32EC:2014 ( talk) 08:24, 12 May 2021 (UTC)
'Honey bearing' or 'honey carrying' – from the Latin verb "ferre". Billsmith60 ( talk) 10:14, 4 August 2022 (UTC)
![]() | This is an archive of past discussions. Do not edit the contents of this page. If you wish to start a new discussion or revive an old one, please do so on the current talk page. |
Archive 1 |
The discussion of A. mellifera caucasica includes a technical term that may not be familiar to all readers. "PROPOLIZE: To fill with propolis, or bee glue; used to strengthen the comb and seal cracks, it also has antimicrobial properties." [1] Walter Siegmund (talk) 02:12, 19 March 2006 (UTC)
Really just added this as a heads-up for the recent sequencing of the honeybee. The three big items which need incorporating are,
Genetic evidence for Africa bee migrations to Europe.
Sequencing shows large number of genes for smell and low number for taste
e.g. Seen on New Scientist and National Geo and Nature, the honeybee has 170 genes for odour receptors. This is more than the two other insects which have been sequenced so far, the fruit fly with 62 and the mosquito with 79. This is in contrast to the honeybees only having 10 taste receptors compared with about 70 in the other insects. Hunny tastes so yummy - Pooh.
Master Regulator genes that manage bee behaviour Ttiotsw 09:10, 28 October 2006 (UTC)
Too many editors were placing content that specifically and exclusively referred to A. mellifera in the Honey bee article; I have moved all of these setions and their references and links here, where they belong. The Honey bee article should be reserved for content that refers to all of the species of Apis collectively; content regarding A. mellifera should, in the future, be placed here, or on the pages for the different subspecies, or different mellifera-related topical pages. Peace, Dyanega 00:56, 2 November 2006 (UTC)
Bob Parks of the University of Maryland claims the bee's genome is insufficiently complex to allow for bee communication. http://bobpark.physics.umd.edu/WN06/wn110306.html 64.81.192.156 01:05, 6 November 2006 (UTC)
"There are seven basic types of beehive: skeps, Langstroth hives, top-bar hives, box hives, log gums, D.E. hives and miller hives."
This is hardly a complete list. Also, what is a "miller" hive? I've never heard of it before. You don't have British Standard, WBC, Smith etc. But to me there are really only two main "types" of beehives. Fixed comb (skeps, gums, box hives etc.), and movable comb (Top Bar Hives, British Standard, Langstroth, Smith, WBC etc.). Movable comb can be subdivided into vertical and horizontal (stacked up boxes vs "coffin" hives). And those could each be divided into those using frames and those using only a top bar. I'll bet without much trouble I could come up with a very long list of hives currently in use in the world which would be much longer than seven. There are certainly more WBC and BS and Smith hives in the world than DE hives (although I've had DE hives and have never had WBC, BS, or Smith hives). If you want a complete list, then let's go for a really complete list. If you want to list the most common ones among English speaking beekeepers, the only two that would make that list would probably be Langstroth and British Standard. If you wanted to add more, WBC and Smith would probably be next on the list.
Michael Bush ( talk) 22:10, 6 February 2008 (UTC)
I thought someone might be interested to incorporate this image in the article which I have uploaded on Commons, mainly for use in the German Wikipedia. Cheers, -- Dietzel65 ( talk) 08:45, 7 March 2008 (UTC)
Google searches:
"european honey bee" -wikipedia -- 31,200 results
"western honey bee" -wikipedia -- 5,360 results —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.199.198.59 ( talk) 02:42, 30 June 2008 (UTC)
The Honey Section seems to be more about the honey and less about the bee.
Valserian ( talk) 01:13, 28 October 2008 (UTC)
In my opinion the image proposed does a better job of illustrating the honey bee than the current image. If no objections in 12 hours, then I will be bold and make the changes. -- Muhammad (talk) 17:32, 4 May 2009 (UTC)
Apis mellifera is not another name for the european honeybee, which is also native to africa, asia, and the middle east. this needs to be moved to western honey bee, or we need a new article for the whole species. Michael1115 ( talk) 16:51, 17 July 2010 (UTC)
I have just moved this article content from "Western Honey Bee" to "European Honey Bee" -- the much more common name.
Google searches:
"european honey bee" -wikipedia -- 31,200 results
"western honey bee" -wikipedia -- 5,360 results —Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.199.198.59 ( talk • contribs)
Despite more google searches, you have given this article a title which is unquestionably wrong. The european races of apis mellifera are only a few of them. I'm moving it back, if no one objects. Michael1115 ( talk) 16:55, 17 July 2010 (UTC)
The article has a over long tag. It seems fine to me - not more than most thorough articles. I would have thought it was short if anything (given a chunk of it is lists). Any objection to removing it? Spanglej ( talk) 02:02, 2 August 2010 (UTC)
Just looking at the subspecies in the sidebar, there are some (especially iberica and saharensis) that I wouldn't really consider to be North-Western Europe, more South-Western. Likewise, carnica, cecropia, and macecdonia seem more Eastern/South-Eastern than South-Western Europe. I don't know if there's an official designation of European bee areas, but it doesn't seem to make sense to me. Keepstherainoff ( talk) 10:58, 26 November 2010 (UTC)
This is article is fairly well-written and quite interesting. I have a few questions and a comment.
1. How do queens get killed by worker bees?
2. How do two queens fight to death?
3. "Honey bees use special pheromones, or chemical communication, for almost all behaviors of life" Should it be "chemical communicators"?
4. "Honey bees are an excellent animal to study with regard to behavior because they are abundant and familiar to most people. An animal that is disregarded every day has very specific behaviors that go unnoticed by the normal person". These sentences are strange. I would remove them (let me know what you think).
ICE77 ( talk) 04:42, 17 March 2011 (UTC)
Rossami, thanks a lot. You wrote truly interesting stuff on some truly interesting points, especially 1. and 2. Regarding 3., I would write "Honey bees use chemical communicators such as pheromones for almost all behaviors of life". For 4., we could use some of your comments and mix them with the original text to clarify and convey the correct idea.
ICE77 ( talk) 23:34, 29 March 2011 (UTC)
The article implies that there were no honeybees in the Americas until the arrival of Europeans. We're told that if the honeybees die out, agriculture will fail. How did plants reproduce in North America before honeybees arrived? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.82.216.91 ( talk) 03:15, 19 March 2011 (UTC)
![]() | This article is the subject of an educational assignment at Washington University supported by the Wikipedia Ambassador Program during the 2012 Fall term. Further details are available on the course page. |
Hi all. I am currently participating in a school project to contribute to Wikipedia. I am learning a lot and would like to leave some comments regarding this article. Please feel free to respond.
This article on the western honey bee is a C-class quality article of mid-importance. Given the importance level and its links to genetics and the study of eusociality, it would be beneficial to raise the article quality to “Good”. Citations may be required for the count of the 28 subspecies mentioned in the geographical distribution and the assertion that 10% of colonies can have two queens. The taxonomical clarification in the first paragraph could be moved to a separate section after the Contents box in order to highlight the other aspects of importance. A portion of the section concerning drones could be removed: “They truly do not have a father….flying gametes.” The reason for this recommendation is that the prior sentences adequately convey this information. The section on “Breeding”, while detailed, can be abbreviated to a few examples in order to shorten the article. The section describing the shaking signal describes a detailed experiment. It could be shortened and also moved to the main article: “Bee learning and communication.” An additional aspect of the interaction between the queen and the worker bee is “worker policing.” This can be mentioned in the article after the discussion of the queen scent. A citation to studies done by Ratnieks and Visscher would supplement this addition.
GenesBrainsBehaviorNeuroscienceKL ( talk) 23:22, 22 September 2012 (UTC)
Update: I have added a section on Queen-Worker Conflict. Please leave comments on modifications needed.
GenesBrainsBehaviorNeuroscienceKL ( talk) 17:08, 27 September 2012 (UTC)
Hi I am also participating in a school project to contribute to Wikipedia.
This article contains a plethora of information, ranging from geographic distribution to biology and life cycle, to the honey it makes. The page has many different categories that seem to cover all of its bases. The life cycle was very detailed along with the inclusion of the different types of workers and their tasks. Some missing information that can be found in the book, "An Introduction to Behavioural Ecology," by Davies, Krebs, and West include the relations between queen and her offspring, and the offspring with each other. The analysis of the related coefficients shows that the queens are expected to try and suppress worker reproduction. A key study by Ratnieks and Visscher (1989) explains ‘worker policing,’ where they experimentally introduced male eggs that had been laid by either queen or worker. They found that the worker eggs had been removed or eaten by other workers, not the queen (they placed her behind a wire mesh). It’s believed that it’s a chemical cue on the queen laid eggs that makes the difference. So, worker policing provides an explanation why worker laid eggs are very rare. This is because other workers prefer their brothers to their nephews ( r=.25 > r=.125).
Under the Talk tab, there is an interesting discussion on how North American plants pollinated before the honey bees arrived from Europe. Agriculture wouldn’t fail if all honey bees disappeared, we would have to get used to a diet of primarily grains and other wind-pollinated crops. There would be a lot less meat (since the clover and alfalfa they eat is honeybee pollinated at agricultural scales) and the fruits and vegetables that we take for granted and consider essential for a balanced diet would be much more scarce and far more expensive.
Alexliu818 (
talk)
19:54, 25 September 2012 (UTC)
![]() | This article is the subject of an educational assignment at Washington University supported by the Wikipedia Ambassador Program during the 2012 Fall term. Further details are available on the course page. |
There is a mistake concerning the genus-species name origin. The name of the genus Apis is indeed Latin for bee. But mellifera is Greek from meli- (not mel!) meaning honey and -fera meaning to bring. At the article about Melissa (which is honey bee in Greek), it is stated that -fera is derived from Greek for wild beast. But -fera is actually derived from Latin for wild beast (e.g. modern word feral). In any case, unless there are any objections (which I can't see why), in 24h I will add the Greek origin of meli- and both probabilities of Greek or Latin origin for -fera. Kalambaki2 23:56, 29 August 2007 (UTC)
The current intro no longer makes sense. It first says "Apis mellifera" and then "tried later to correct it to Apis mellifera" and how the old name stuck. I trust someone knows how it should be... -- ASmartKid ( talk) 19:58, 3 December 2008 (UTC)
I am practically certain that the Latin for honey is not "meli". At the same time I am certain that the Greek for honey is "meli", since I'm Greek and I ate MELI on bread last night. The article is wrong concerning naming. 79.103.187.216 ( talk) 11:37, 21 December 2008 (UTC)
I think northwestern European and southwestern European subspecies should be merged into Europe. I don't see the point of keeping them separated.
ICE77 ( talk) 21:51, 31 January 2015 (UTC)
The Wikipedia article Colony Collapse Disorder treats that subject as a critical problem for honeybees, the environment and humans, while this article hardly mentions it. This should be reconciled by someone who knows more about bees than me.
Ttulinsky 05:35, 8 April 2015 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ttulinsky ( talk • contribs)
I just noticed a map has been made of the origin of apis mellifica, see https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apis_mellifera_distribution_map.svg can it be included in the article ?
It seems that although there are 28 subspecies, they all originated from Africa (I assume the maker of the map indicated the correct area in Africa). A map with the subspecies can be found at http://www.imkerpedia.nl/wiki/index.php/Ondersoorten_van_de_Apis_mellifera (perhaps this map can be linked). However, I also prefer the single location, and true origin the maker of the map has provided. 91.182.100.6 ( talk) 09:24, 5 June 2012 (UTC)
Overall, this is a very strong article, but a few organizational changes might improve it even further. One of the strengths of the article is its focus on beekeeping products such as honey and beeswax, which have vital economic value to humans. The extensive description of biology and life cycle is also an excellent way to start an article. However, an important category to add would be colony structure. While the article addresses the roles of drones and queens, it would be more logical if these distinctions, along with workers, occurred as sub-points under a larger single category of social structure. Additionally, the genome category should be separated out on its own and then a separate behavior section should be added that includes the relocated headings of communication and pheromones. Categories like social interactions and interactions with other species could then be added to the section as well to add more behavioral information and references. This would be a more logical way to organize a behavior section rather than under the nonsensical heading of genome. This article deserves the rating of high-importance as it is covers information on a pollinator species used for essential ecosystems services. The B-class rating could likely become A-class with slight reorganization and more elaboration on certain concepts like colony collapse disorder and pollinator decline, which should be a priority since this is rated as a high-importance article.
Mkfreiler ( talk) 20:11, 9 September 2015 (UTC)
This article was written comprehensively with an abundance of information on this bee species. One of the strengths of this article is the thorough section on Beekeeping, which emphasizes the importance of this bee species for honey production to humans. Something interesting I learned about this species is that there are seven different types of beehives this species can construct, all of which differentially impact colony health, wax, and honey production. Three categories that are missing in the outline include colony defense behavior, mating behavior, and nest recognition behavior. Colony defense behavior is important to include because it gives the reader insight to how this bee species would react to a predator or different invading bee species to protect its own nest. Mating behavior is important because it helps explain how this bee species sexually reproduces via the Queen/Drone interaction, which would also clarify how a Queen may sexually select from the drones (male bees). Nest recognition behavior is also important because it would explain how this bee species would be able to tell the difference between its own nest and other nests, as well as bees that behave differently when not at their home nest. Looking at the talk page, I agree with the B-class rating, but could easily become A-class once the article balances to have more information on inter- and intra-species behaviors (i.e. colony defense, nest recognition). Marcus.kwon ( talk) 22:38, 9 September 2015 (UTC)
This article is thorough and has distinct relevant sections that explain the geographical location, behavioral mechanisms, as well as the lifestyle of the Western Honey Bee. I learned about the mechanism behind making new queen bees, the genetic difference between male and female honey bees, and the “dancing” form of communication. I believe that one category that could have been added would be habitat. The authors of the article did mention geographical location; however, it was too broad, and only spoke of the continents in which honey bees are located and not of the physical habitat they live in. I also believe that sexual investment should have been another category in explaining the bias towards the production of male or female eggs. Another category would be colony defense. The article does talk about honey bee predators but not about how the colony counteracts attacks. I think that this article deserves its ranking as a B-class vital article to Science. Significant research has been done on the Honey Bee, and its species has been vital to the understanding of behavioral ecology amongst insects. Vsalazar258 ( talk) 03:55, 10 September 2015 (UTC)
Some areas that are missing that should be included are: kin selection, sex ratios, and predator defense. The queen-worker conflict section summarizes kin selection and sex ratios, but both these topics could be defined more. The predator section gives a good variety of predators, but doesn’t discuss anywhere how the honeybees defend themselves from these predators. Also, for organizational purposes, I think it would make sense to put the Genome section after Thermoregulation, and move the Honey Production section down with Beekeeping. Liz.yucknut ( talk) 10:46, 10 September 2015 (UTC)
Hello fellow Wikipedians,
I have just added archive links to 2 external links on
Western honey bee. Please take a moment to review
my edit. If necessary, add {{
cbignore}}
after the link to keep me from modifying it. Alternatively, you can add {{
nobots|deny=InternetArchiveBot}}
to keep me off the page altogether. I made the following changes:
When you have finished reviewing my changes, please set the checked parameter below to true to let others know.
An editor has reviewed this edit and fixed any errors that were found.
Cheers.— cyberbot II Talk to my owner:Online 10:40, 24 January 2016 (UTC)
The first paragraph reads:
However, if you read the Honey bee article, it clearly says there are only seven recognized species of honey bees. Are we confusing species with subspecies? Tal.reichert ( talk) 21:24, 8 August 2016 (UTC)
The single-sentence second paragraph (in the opening section, right before the outline) states"
Actually, the decline in European honey bee colonies has been observed across the world. I am editing the sentence. Skyduster ( talk) 07:36, 17 March 2013 (UTC)
I added a Refimprove tag to the beekeeping section. Lack of references here is related to a dearth of references and inline citations on the beekeeping main page. If you improve here, please consider making similar improvements on the beekeeping main page. Cliff ( talk) 03:47, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
Statements "The queen lays all the eggs in a healthy colony" and "Workers are sterile females" are not exactly correct, since some workers actually participate in the reproduction as described in the "Queen-worker conflict" section and in related articles. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 199.168.151.39 ( talk • contribs)
The global distribution picture is misleading; it shows that Western Honey Bees don't live in the center of Africa or Alaska but I am most certain that this is not true. In the second paragraph of the the "life cycle" section it says that when the old queen leaves with a swarm that she takes two thirds of the adult population with her BUT in the "queens" section it says that the queen takes about half, this is repeated information that doesn't agree. There is repeating information within the "Queens" section as well and I believe it can be condensed. Besides that this is a very thorough article and I enjoyed reading it. There was some drama in the talk portion putting this article together but it looks like that have sorted it out, for now. It's a level-4 vital article in Biology and belongs to 2 wiki-projects. There is so much information in this article, it really goes in depth all about the Western Honey Bee, in class we have only mentioned it here and there. May I suggest adding pictures of the subspecies with corresponding links. When the temperature in the hive was discussed, was this referring to the average temperature of an overall standard box hive or the center of a brood cluster average?-- CKAbegg ( talk) 05:31, 25 February 2019 (UTC)
It's writing and tone is closer to a talk page debate section than an informative one. Worse, it makes claims that are not profided by the sources given, for example as it currently stands, it starts out as;
- then proceeds to give a couple of sources, none of which state this. In fact one of the source clearly states.
It follows up with a borderline tangent on a false assertion giving examples of wind polination and self polination. None of which are relevant to apis melifera. instead of writing which crops don'y need animal polination i propose adding the ones that do. Will be re-working the section a bit. And I'm open to suggestion in writing or tone since english isnt my first language. SWAGnificient ( talk) 05:04, 15 July 2019 (UTC)
This article in the right column at the top says: "Subspecies - 29 currently recognized, see list" and it points to List of Apis mellifera subspecies. The number of subspecies there is 31. Therefore, both numbers should be 31.
ICE77 ( talk) 05:24, 22 March 2020 (UTC)
"When a fertile female worker produces drones, a conflict arises between her interests and those of the queen. The worker shares one-half of her genes with the drone and one-quarter with her brothers, favouring her offspring over those of the queen. The queen shares one-half of her genes with her sons and one-quarter with the sons of fertile female workers"
the above is accurate, but i think it is not very well formulated for the laypersons understanding. "bees show a greater interest in raising the next generation of bees that share a greater a part of their genes with them. so the queen prefers raising her own daughters/sons who each own one-half of the queens genes as opposed to raising the offspring of her daughter the female worker who will each carry only one-quarter of the queens genes. from the point of view of the female worker bee she is interested the most in her own offspring who carry one-half of the egg laying female worker bee, while the female worker bee has on average only one-quarter genes in common with her sisters/brothers the offspring of the queen bee." something along these lines (i guess it is still far from perfect. (i try avoid using multiple expressions for the offspring like: drones, the drone, sons - in order to allow the reader to concentrate on the relationship and avoid initiating unnecessary musings about whether sons or drones or the drone should mean the same or are implying some subtle difference). also a brief mention of the idea of interest being in ensuring the creation of individuals that carry the most possible genes similar to those carried by the parent and thus preferring own offspring to brothers (50% gene similarity vs. 25%) makes understanding the argument easier. imho.
89.134.199.32 (
talk)
12:36, 31 May 2020 (UTC).
The purported range for Apis mellifera is shown by the figure File:Apis mellifera distribution map.svg, created in 2011 by User:Sémhur.
The source of data cited for that figure only appears to include land-based collection points, but the range map has been drawn to 'fill in' all of the gaps. (One also wonders if the map suffers from a lack of sampling that inadvertently 'erases' bees from much of Russia.)
This results in a somewhat implausible range map that includes vast swathes of the world's oceans. ( Point Nemo, more than 2600 km from any land, appears to be included.) While honeybees have been known to forage out to ranges of 10 or 15 km, I am unable to locate any evidence of their ability to travel more than a hundred-fold further. TenOfAllTrades( talk) 14:36, 31 January 2021 (UTC)
There may be some useful material in this recent Guardian article: ‘No one knew they existed’: wild heirs of lost British honeybee found at Blenheim. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 16:30, 8 November 2021 (UTC)
Is "mellifera" "honey bearing" or "honey making" ??? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2001:8003:E422:3C01:C923:40FA:32EC:2014 ( talk) 08:24, 12 May 2021 (UTC)
'Honey bearing' or 'honey carrying' – from the Latin verb "ferre". Billsmith60 ( talk) 10:14, 4 August 2022 (UTC)