European dark bee

European dark bee
The Savoie honeybee has rather light wings for a black bee (note ample hair on thorax and black abdomen with little hair)
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Apidae
Genus:	Apis
Species:	A. mellifera
Subspecies:	A. m. mellifera
Trinomial name
Apis mellifera mellifera Linnaeus, 1758

The European dark bee (Apis mellifera mellifera) is a subspecies of honey bee whose original European range stretched from western Russia through Northern Europe and probably down to the Iberian Peninsula. It was domesticated in Europe and hives were brought to North America in the colonial era. They are large for honey bees though they have unusually short tongues. They are sometimes called the German black bee or German dark bee.

There are three main races, namely

which have local breeds, such as the Pomeranian brown, the Alps black, or the black Scandinavian. All of the subspecies belong to the 'M' lineage of Apis mellifera.

The European dark bee can be distinguished from other subspecies by their stocky body, abundant thoracal and sparse abdominal hair which is brown, and overall dark coloration; in nigra, there is also heavy dark pigmentation of the wings. Overall, when viewed from a distance, they should appear blackish, or in mellifera, rich dark brown. The aggressive feral hybrids with other subspecies can be distinguished by the lighter, yellowish banding on the sides of the abdomen, but this is often difficult. For breeding pure dark bees according to the standard, details of the wing veins are nowadays considered to be the only reliable distinguishing character.

Hybrids have a defensive character and have the reputation of stinging people (and other creatures) for no apparent reason. Some colonies are very "runny" on the comb and so excitable that beekeepers consider them difficult to work with. This characteristic is not, however, one that has been traditionally associated with the dark bee breeds, which were previously known for their rather easy handling (though they have never been considered as placid as the Carniolan honey bee).

Apis mellifera mellifera is no longer a significant commercial subspecies of the Western honey bee, but there are a number of dedicated hobbyist beekeepers that keep these bees in Europe and other parts of the world. Immigrants brought these subspecies into the Americas. Prior to their arrival, the American continent did not have any honey bees. Hybrid descendants of the original colonial black bees may also have survived in North America as feral bees. There are reports by beekeepers that, after the arrival of the Varroa mite on the American continent in 1987, some feral bee colonies survived. The original form is no longer present in North America. A common myth regarding European black bees is that they cannot sting because they do not have a stinger.

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Wikipedia