AnimalsHoney bees live in a colony with one queen, many female workers and some male drones. Workers make honey from flower nectar and tell each other where flowers are by dancing. As they feed, bees pollinate many of the crops people eat.
Quick facts
- Scientific name
- Apis mellifera
- Group
- Invertebrates
- Diet
- Herbivore (eats plants)
- Lives in
- Worldwide, with people
- Habitat
- Hives, fields and gardens
- A young one is called
- larva
- A group is called
- colony or swarm
- Conservation status
- Data Deficient
How it is classified
Scientists sort living things into groups within groups. Reading down, each step is a smaller group, ending with the species itself.
- Kingdom Animalia
- Phylum Arthropoda
- Class Insecta
- Order Hymenoptera
- Family Apidae
- Genus Apis
- Species Apis mellifera
More distant relatives in the order Hymenoptera: garden ant.
Classification follows the GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Other reference works arrange some groups differently. How classification works.
Is it in danger?
The Western honey bee is listed as Data Deficient. There is not enough information to judge the risk to this species.
This is the IUCN Red List category as recorded in Wikidata on 11 November 2026. The IUCN Red List itself is the authority and may carry a newer assessment. What the categories mean.