Editing Honey bee (section)

====Western honey bee====
{{Main|Apis mellifera}}
[[File:Apis mellifera Tanzania.jpg|thumb|The European honey bee may have originated from eastern Africa. This bee is pictured in [[Tanzania]].]]

''A. mellifera'', the most common domesticated<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://scientificbeekeeping.com/whats-happening-to-the-bees-part-5-is-there-a-difference-between-domesticated-and-feral-bees/|title=What's Happening To The Bees? – Part 5: Is There A Difference Between Domesticated And Feral Bees?|date=26 June 2014}}</ref> species, was first domesticated before 2600 BC<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.fondazioneslowfood.com/en/ark-of-taste-slow-food/egyptian-honeybee/|title=Egyptian honeybee - Arca del Gusto|website=Slow Food Foundation}}</ref> and was the third insect to have its [[genome]] mapped. It seems to have originated in eastern tropical [[Africa]] and spread from there to [[Europe]] and eastwards into [[Asia]] to the [[Tian Shan]] range. It is variously called the European, western, or common honey bee in different parts of the world. Many [[List of Apis mellifera subspecies|subspecies]] have adapted to the local geographic and climatic environments; in addition, breeds such as the [[Buckfast bee]] have been bred. Behavior, colour, and anatomy can be quite different from one subspecies or even strain to another.<ref name="Reuber-2015"/>

''A. mellifera'' [[phylogeny]] is the most enigmatic of all honey bee species. It seems to have diverged from its eastern relatives only during the [[Late Miocene]]. This would fit the hypothesis that the ancestral stock of cave-nesting honey bees was separated into the western group of East Africa and the eastern group of tropical Asia by [[desertification]] in the [[Middle East]] and adjacent regions, which caused declines of food plants and trees that provided nest sites, eventually causing [[gene flow]] to cease.<ref name="Reuber-2015">{{cite book |last1=Reuber |first1=Brant |title=21st Century Homestead: Beekeeping |date=21 February 2015 |publisher=lulu.com |isbn=978-1-312-93733-8 |page=116 |edition=First}}</ref>

The diversity of ''A. mellifera'' subspecies is probably the product of a largely [[Early Pleistocene]] [[Radiation (biology)|radiation]] aided by climate and habitat changes during the [[Quaternary glaciation|last ice age]]. That the western honey bee has been intensively managed by humans for many millennia&nbsp;– including hybridization and introductions&nbsp;– has apparently increased the speed of its [[evolution]] and confounded the DNA sequence data to a point where little of substance can be said about the exact relationships of many ''A.&nbsp;mellifera'' subspecies.<ref name="Arias-2005" />

''Apis mellifera'' is not native to [[the Americas]], so it was not present when the European explorers and colonists arrived. However, other native bee species were kept and traded by indigenous peoples.<ref>{{cite journal | author=Villanueva, Rogel |display-authors=etal | title=Extinction of ''Melipona beecheii'' and traditional beekeeping in the Yucatán peninsula| journal=Bee World| year=2005 | volume=86 | issue=2 | pages=35–41 | doi=10.1080/0005772X.2005.11099651 |s2cid=31943555 }}</ref> In 1622, European colonists brought the [[European dark bee|German honey bee]] (''A.&nbsp;m. mellifera'') to the Americas first, followed later by the [[Italian bee|Italian honey bee]] (''A.&nbsp;m. ligustica'') and others. Many of the crops that depend on western honey bees for pollination have also been imported since colonial times. Escaped swarms (known as "wild" honey bees, but actually [[feral]]) spread rapidly as far as the [[Great Plains]], usually preceding the colonists. Honey bees did not naturally cross the [[Rocky Mountains]]; they were transported by the [[Mormon]] pioneers to Utah in the late 1840s, and by ship to [[California]] in the early 1850s.<ref>{{cite web|author=Head RJ|title=A Brief Survey of Ancient Near Eastern Beekeeping; A Final Note|url=http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/review/?vol=20&num=1&id=694#_ednref30|date=2008|publisher=The FARMS Review|access-date=16 January 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130730162629/http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/review/?vol=20&num=1&id=694#_ednref30|archive-date=30 July 2013|url-status=dead}}</ref>

[[File:Apis mellifera scutellata 1355020.jpg|thumb|right|An Africanized honey bee (left) and a European honey bee on a honeycomb]]