List of Apis mellifera subspecies
Apis mellifera, the western honey bee, has many subspecies. The most recent taxonomic revision in 1999 recognized 28 subspecies and three additional subspecies have been described since then. Other sources recognize as many as 33 subspecies.
Subspecies of Africa
Apis mellifera adansonii, classified by Latreille, 1804 found in Nigeria and Burkina Faso.Apis mellifera capensis, classified by Eschscholtz, 1822 found in southern South Africa.Apis mellifera intermissa, classified by von Buttel-Reepen, 1906 found in the north western coast of Africa from Tunisia, along Libya and westerly into Morocco found in Somalia, Uganda, Sudan and Yemen.Apis mellifera lamarckii, classified by Cockerell, 1906 found in Nile Valley of Egypt and Sudan, domesticated before 2600BC. This mitotype can also be identified in honey bees from California.Apis mellifera litorea, classified by Smith, 1961 found in the low elevations of east Africa.Apis mellifera monticola, classified by Smith, 1961 found in the high altitude mountains with elevation between 1,500 and 3,100 metres of east Africa, such as.Apis mellifera ruttneri, classified by Sheppard, Arias, Grech & Meixner in 1997 endemic to the Maltese islands.Apis mellifera sahariensis, classified by Baldensperger, 1932 found in northwestern Africa, on the southern side of the Atlas Mountains..Apis mellifera scutellata, classified by Lepeletier, 1836 found in central and east Africa; also as hybridized populations in South America, Central America and the southern USA. In an effort to address concerns by Brazilian beekeepers and to increase honey production in Brazil, Warwick Kerr, a Brazilian geneticist, was asked by Brazilian federal and state authorities in 1956 to import several East African lowland queens from Tanzania to Piracicaba, São Paulo State in southern Brazil. Due to a mishap, some of the queens escaped. The East African lowland queens' virgin daughters mated with local European honey bee drones and produced what is now known as the Africanized honey bee in South and North America. The intense struggle for survival of western honey bees in Sub-Saharan Africa is given as the reason that this subspecies is proactive in defending the hive and also more likely to abandon an existing hive and abscond to a more secure location. They direct more of their energies to defensive behaviors and less of their energies to honey storage. East African lowland honey bees are leather-colored and difficult to distinguish by eye from the darker strains of the Italian honey bee.Apis mellifera simensis, classified by Meixner, Leta, Koeniger and Fuchs, 2011 found in Ethiopia.Apis mellifera unicolor, classified by Latreille, 1804 endemic to the island of Madagascar.
Apis mellifera anatoliaca, classified by Maa, 1953 its range is in the central Anatolia in Turkey.Apis mellifera caucasica, classified by Pollmann, 1889 found in the central Caucasus and towards the Turkish Black Sea coast.Apis mellifera cypria, classified by Pollmann, 1879 endemic to the island of Cyprus.Apis mellifera meda, classified by Skorikov, 1929, more common in Iran and Iraq, but its range extends into south eastern Turkey and northern Syria.Apis mellifera mellifera, classified by Linnaeus, 1758 originating in central Asia and migrating throughout Europe after the last ice age, having the largest geographic range of all European honey bees. It was domesticated in Europe and imported into Britain during Roman times and Ireland during Christian times. Hives were later exported to North America in the colonial era in 1622 where they were referred to as the English Fly by the Native American Indians. In 2014-2017 a European wide survey was conducted with 621 colonies, which included the various subspecies kept by beekeepers, it found that the A. m. mellifera was the most aggressive, had the highest swarming tendency and the lowest hygienic behaviour - a trait closely linked with Varroa sensitive hygiene.Apis mellifera pomonella, classified by Sheppard & Meixner, 2003 endemic to the Tian Shan Mountains in Central Asia.Apis mellifera remipes, classified by Gerstäcker, 1862 found in the region of Armenia.Apis mellifera sinisxinyuan, classified by C.Chen, Z.Liu, Q.Pan, X.Chen, H.Wang, H.Guo, S.Liu, H.Lu, S.Tian, R.Li and W.Shi, 2016 discovered in 2016 in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, China, this subspecies has a range that is the farthest east known for the species.Apis mellifera syriaca, classified by Skorikov, 1929 found between Turkey and Egypt.
Subspecies of Europe
Apis mellifera adami, classified by Friedrich Ruttner, 1975 named after Brother Adam, is endemic to the island of Crete.Apis mellifera artemisia, classified by Engel, 1999 located in north central Ukraine.Apis mellifera carnica, classified by Pollmann, 1879, originating from the Carpathian Plain, it now dominates the central / western Balkans, Austria, Germany and much of western Poland - popular with beekeepers due to its extreme gentleness. In 2014-2017 a European wide survey was conducted with 621 colonies, which included the various subspecies kept by beekeepers, it found that the A. m. carnica was the most docile, had the lowest swarming tendency and the highest hygienic behaviour - a trait closely linked with Varroa sensitive hygiene.Apis mellifera cecropia, classified by Kiesenwetter, 1860 endemic to southern Greece, the Peloponnese region.Apis mellifera iberiensis, classified by Engel, 1999 endemic to the Iberian Peninsula.Apis mellifera ligustica, classified by Spinola, 1806 originating from the Italian mainland, south of the Alps, it is a commonly kept subspecies for commercial beekeeping in much of the world.Apis mellifera macedonica, classified by Ruttner, 1988 northern Greece, North Macedonia and eastwards towards Romania.Apis mellifera siciliana, classified by Grassi, 1881 endemic to the island of Sicily, Italy.Apis mellifera sossimai, classified by Engel, 1999 located in central Ukraine and towards the northern Caucasus.Apis mellifera taurica, classified by Alpatov, 1935 located in Crimea.