Red dwarf honey bee
The red dwarf honey bee is a small, reddish brown wild honey bee from Asia. Its family builds just one open honeycomb hanging from a branch, out in the fresh air. It is a busy pollinator that helps many plants and fruit trees.
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Fun facts
It is called dwarf because it is smaller than other honey bees.
Bees tell each other where flowers are with a dance. This bee dances on the flat top of its comb, pointing straight at the flowers.
When the swarm has chosen a new home, the workers make a piping sound, and the whole swarm takes off within one minute.
If it builds a new nest close to the old one, it takes the old wax along and uses it again.
In 2024 a whole colony was found in Malta, the first time ever in Europe.
Most asked questions about Red dwarf honey bee
?Does the dwarf honey bee make honey?
Yes. People in parts of Asia collect its honey from wild nests.
?How big is the red dwarf honey bee?
A worker is about 7 to 10 millimetres long, smaller than a normal honey bee.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Apis florea
- Named by
- Fabricius, 1787
- Group
- Bees and bumblebees
- Family
- Apidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Apidae
- Lives on
- Asia, Africa, Europe
- Also known as
- Dwarf honey bee
Where the facts come from
- Apis florea (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Gideon Pisanty ( Gidip ) ΧΧΧ’ΧΧ Χ€ΧΧΧ ΧΧ. CC BY 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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