Editing Honey bee (section)

===Species===
While about 20,000 species of bees exist,<ref name="Nicholls-2015">{{cite web | last=Nicholls | first=Henry | title=The truth about bees | website=BBC | date=15 June 2015 | url=https://www.bbc.com/earth/story/20150615-the-truth-about-bees | access-date=9 July 2020}}</ref> only eight [[species]] of honey bee are recognized, with a total of 43 [[subspecies]], although historically seven to 11 species are recognized:<ref name="Engel-1999">{{cite journal |author=Michael S. Engel |year=1999 |title=The taxonomy of recent and fossil honey bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae: ''Apis'') |journal=[[Journal of Hymenoptera Research]] |volume=8 |pages=165–196 |author-link=Michael S. Engel}}</ref> ''[[Apis andreniformis]]'' (the black dwarf honey bee); ''[[Apis cerana]]'' (the eastern honey bee); ''[[Apis dorsata]]'' (the giant honey bee); ''[[Apis florea]]'' (the red dwarf honey bee); ''[[Apis koschevnikovi]]'' (Koschevnikov's honey bee); ''[[Apis laboriosa]]'' (the Himalayan giant honey bee); ''[[Western honey bee|Apis mellifera]]'' (the western honey bee); and ''[[Apis nigrocincta]]'' (the Philippine honey bee).<ref name="Encyclopedia of Life">{{cite web | title=Honey Bees | website=Encyclopedia of Life | url=https://eol.org/pages/104135 | access-date=9 July 2020}}</ref>

Honey bees are the only extant members of the [[Tribe (biology)|tribe]] Apini. Today's honey bees constitute three [[clade]]s: ''Micrapis'' (the dwarf honey bees), ''Megapis'' (the giant honey bee), and ''Apis'' (the western honey bee and its close relatives).<ref name="Engel-1999"/><ref name="Arias-2005">{{cite journal |author1=Maria C. Arias |author2=Walter S. Sheppard |year=2005 |title=Phylogenetic relationships of honey bees (Hymenoptera:Apinae:Apini) inferred from nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequence data |journal=[[Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution]] |volume=37 |issue=1 |pages=25–35 |doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2005.02.017 |pmid=16182149|bibcode=2005MolPE..37...25A }}<br />{{cite journal |author1=Maria C. Arias |author2=Walter S. Sheppard | year=2005 |title=Corrigendum to "Phylogenetic relationships of honey bees (Hymenoptera:Apinae:Apini) inferred from nuclear and mitochondrial DNA sequence data" |journal=[[Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution]] |volume=40 |issue=1 |page=315 |doi=10.1016/j.ympev.2006.02.002|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Most species have historically been cultured or at least exploited for honey and [[beeswax]] by humans indigenous to their native ranges. Only two species have been truly [[domesticated]]: ''[[Apis mellifera]]'' and ''[[Apis cerana]]''. ''A.&nbsp;mellifera'' has been cultivated at least since the time of the building of the [[Egyptian pyramid]]s, and only that species has been moved extensively beyond its native range.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Clark |first=Michael C. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZPyFDwAAQBAJ&dq=A.+mellifera+has+been+cultivated+at+least+since+the+time+of+the+building+of+the+Egyptian+pyramids%2C+and+only+that+species+has+been+moved+extensively+beyond+its+native+range&pg=PT291 |title=Coexisting on Earth Homo sapiens Quagmire |date=2018-04-03 |publisher=Michael C. Clark |language=en}}</ref>