---
title: "Honingbij"
description: "Apis mellifera — Insecten en spinnen. The western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bees worldwide."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/nl/animal/western-honey-bee
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Honingbij

> Apis mellifera — Insecten en spinnen. The western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bees worldwide.

- Scientific name: *Apis mellifera*
- Category: `insects` (Insecten en spinnen)
- Habitats: `urban` (Steden en tuinen), `farm` (Boerderij)
- iNaturalist observations: 736772
- Wikidata: [Q30034](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q30034)
- iNaturalist taxon: [47219](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/47219)

## Names

- en: Western Honey Bee
- de: Westliche Honigbiene
- es: Abeja melífera europea
- fr: Abeille domestique
- nl: Honingbij
- pt: Abelha-europeia
- pl: Pszczoła miodna

## Countries with the most observations

US (376844), CA (42026), MX (31772), AU (28552), GB (25735), DE (24427), FR (14258), ZA (11906), BR (11318), IT (11222), AT (9750), ES (8376)

## Summary

The western honey bee (Apis mellifera) is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bees worldwide. The genus name Apis is Latin for 'bee', and mellifera is the Latin for 'honey-bearing' or 'honey-carrying', referring to the species' production of honey.
Like all honey bee species, the western honey bee is eusocial, creating colonies with a single fertile female (or "queen"), many normally non-reproductive females or "workers", and a small proportion of fertile males or "drones". Individual colonies can house tens of thousands of bees. Colony activities are organized by complex communication between individuals…

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_honey_bee

## Photo

![Honingbij](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/western-honey-bee/medium.jpg)

Photo: Vasily Reinkymov · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/128011193

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/western-honey-bee?lang=nl` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).