Author: Linnaeus, 1758

Type species: Apis mellifica Linnaeus, 1761 = Apis mellifera Linnaeus, 1758, by designation of Latreille, 1810: 439.
Synonyms: Apicula Rafinesque, 1814; Apiarus Rafinesque, 1815.
Clade: Anthophila
Family: Apidae
Subfamily: Apinae
Tribe: Apini
Distinctive traits
  • Elongated, 'banana-shaped' marginal cell
  • Hairy eyes (shared with Coelioxys)
  • Chevron-shaped metasomal sternites.
  • Eyes touching at the top of the head (vertex) in males.
Pictures of distinctive traits
Morphologically close genera, and how to distinguish them:
Several wild bee species look superficially like Apis mellifera. A closer look at Apis mellifera's distinctive traits can easily prevent such a confusion.
  • Apis - Andrena
Andrena females have foveae (velvety areas) next to the eyes, the marginal cell is not banana-shaped, the eyes are hairless.
Andrena males have normal eyes, not enlarged neither touching at the top of the head.
  • Apis - Colletes
Colletes females have a sigmoid second recurrent vein, the marginal cell is not banana-shaped, the eyes are hairless. Colletes males have normal eyes, not enlarged neither touching at the top of the head.
  • Apis - Halictus
Halictus females have a bald furrow on tergite 5, the marginal cell is not banana-shaped, the eyes are hairless.
Halictus males have normal eyes, not enlarged neither touching at the top of the head.
  • Apis - Megachile, Hoplitis or Osmia
Megachile, Hoplitis or Osmia species have only two submarginal cells, their females have a ventral brush and their males have normal eyes.
  • Apis - Melitturga
Melitturga males have enlarged eyes, but the eyes are not touching at the top of the head. Plus, Melitturga species have a short marginal cell and club-shaped antennae.
General comments on Apis species identification
There is only one single species of Apis in Europe. While there may be different races of Apis mellifera recognized in Europe, every Apis can be distinguished from the other European species of Anthophila using the same traits.
Apis species found in Europe (IUCN 2014 + Rasmont et al 2017):
Apis mellifera Linnaeus, 1758.
Page contributors:
  • Adrien Perrard (Dec. 2019)

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References used to write this page:
  • Michener, C.D. 2007. The Bees of the World, 2nd Edition. The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore.
  • Michez D., Rasmont P., Terzo, M., Vereecken, N. 2019. Abeilles d'Europes. Hymenoptères d'Europes, Volume 1. N.A.P. Editions.
  • Nieto, A., Roberts, S. P., Kemp, J., Rasmont, P., Kuhlmann, M., García Criado, M., ... & Michez, D. 2014. European red list of bees. Luxembourg: Publication Office of the European Union, 98. (IUCN 2014)
  •  Rasmont, P., Devalez, Jelle, Pauly, A., Michez, D. & Radchenko, V.G. 2017. Addition to the checklist of IUCN European wild bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea). Annales de la Société entomologique de France 53: 17-32.