Apis mellifera subsp. scutellata (Apidae)

The Africanized honey bee (Apis mellifera subsp. scutellata), also known as the "killer bee" on the mainland U.S., looks just like the domestic honey bee.  Apis mellifera subsp. scutellata is primarily a public safety threat in Hawaii where our year-round mild climate is sure to favor the development of many hives throughout our lowlands where our residential communities and tourist areas are found. If it were to become established, it could seriously impact Hawaii's communities, businesses, and tourism. This bee could also impact commercial beekeepers, resulting in reduced yields to melon and other crops that rely on pollination. It could also impact honey and queen bee production in the State by infiltrating domestic honey bee colonies. Unlike the domesticated European honey bee, the Africanized honey bee is a "wild" bee that is not comfortable around people or animals, and will readily defend its hive at greater distances from the disturbance, become more upset with less reason, and sting in much greater numbers. Some individuals have been stung hundreds of times in only a few moments. In isolated instances, people and animals have been stung to death, primarily by not being able to get away from the bees quickly enough.  Apis mellifera subsp. scutellata is not known to be present in Hawaii (as of late 2008).  Originally from Africa, the Apis mellifera subsp. scutellata was introduced into Brazil in 1956. It escaped the following year and has been migrating north since then. In 1990, the AHB entered Texas and today it is well established in the southern portions of Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California. 

Species description or overview

Apis mellifera scutellata information
Apis mellifera scutellata ecology, habitat, dispersal, and management are from The Global Invasive Species Database.

Taxonomy & nomenclature

Some documents posted on the HEAR website are in Adobe Acrobat PDF format. If your computer is not already set up to read these files, you can download the FREE Adobe Acrobat reader. You can set up most web browsers to automatically invoke this reader (as a "helper application" or "add-in") upon encountering documents of this type (refer to your browser's documentation for how to do this).

The Hawaiian Ecosystems at Risk (HEAR) project is currently funded by the Pacific Basin Information Node (PBIN) of the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) through PIERC (USGS) with support from HCSU (UH-Hilo). More details are available online.

The content of this page is based on information last generated on 03 November 2009 by PT. The template for this page was created on 15 March 2004 by EMS, and was last updated on 20 February 2006 by PT.