Commercial-beekeeping
Guides
Apis mellifera ligustica
Italian honey bee, Ligurian honey bee
Apis mellifera ligustica, the Italian honey bee, is a subspecies of the western honey bee native to the Italian Peninsula. It was introduced to the United States in 1859 and has become the most common subspecies used in American commercial beekeeping. The subspecies is characterized by its yellow coloration, gentle temperament, and strong brood rearing capacity. It is widely utilized for honey production and crop pollination, though it shows less resistance to Varroa mites compared to some other honey bee stocks.
Bombini
bumblebees
Bombini is a tribe of large, densely hairy apid bees containing the single living genus Bombus, the bumblebees, plus several extinct genera. The tribe includes both social species that form annual or perennial colonies of up to a few hundred individuals, and brood-parasitic species (formerly classified as Psithyrus) that invade and exploit nests of social species. Bumblebees are distinguished by their ability to perform buzz pollination and to forage in cooler temperatures and lower light conditions than most other bees.