Apis mellifera The European Honey Bee
Apis mellifera the european honey bee is a species of honey bee. Apis mellifera is a social insect. The bodies of bees are divided into head, thorax and abdomen, with three pairs of legs and two pairs of wings on the thorax. The fore and hind wings on each side are linked by hooks and grooves so that they move together in flight. The queen spends all her time laying eggs, perhaps up to 1500 a day, each one being placed in a wax cell made by the workers. The drones, who live for about four to five weeks and do not work inside the hive, are fed by the workers or help themselves from the store of pollen and nectar in the combs. Their function is to fertilize a new queen. The workers are female bees, but their reproductive organs do not function. They collect food from outside the hive and store it, make the wax cells and feed the developing larvae.