Africanized Honey Bee

Africanized Honey Bee battle analysis

The Africanized honey bee began with an accident. In 1957, 26 swarms of African honey bees escaped from a research apiary in Brazil and bred with local European bees. Their descendants spread through South and Central America and Mexico and reached Texas in 1990. They look almost identical to European honey bees, a little smaller, and they make honey and pollinate crops in the same way.

The difference is behaviour. Disturb an Africanized colony and it reacts faster, sends 10–30 times more bees, stings 4–10 times more often and chases for up to about 400 m. Each worker's barbed sting tears away and keeps pumping venom, while the sting apparatus releases isopentyl acetate, an alarm scent that marks the victim for the next wave. Research shows the venom per bee is actually smaller than a European bee's; people are hurt by the sheer number of stings.

On the absolute battle scale, the ratings describe one worker, and one worker is a tiny, fragile insect with a single small dose of venom. It gets low Attack and Defense but strong Agility, high Ferocity and one of the best insect Intelligence scores, thanks to the learning and waggle-dance communication honey bees are famous for. The colony-scale threat is recorded in the profile and traits rather than inflated into one bee's physical ratings.

Habitat & range

The pure African subspecies A. m. scutellata lives in the savannas and open country of eastern and southern Africa. The Africanized hybrid spread from southern Brazil after 1957 through much of South America, Central America and Mexico, and has been in the southern United States since 1990. It does best in warm climates and nests in cavities, including in and around buildings.

Diet & hunting

Workers collect nectar (stored as honey) and pollen, plus water and plant resins. As pollinators they visit many crops and wild plants. Predators include birds and other insects that eat bees, and the honey and brood attract nest raiders.

Social life

A colony has one egg-laying queen, thousands of female workers and seasonal male drones. Workers change jobs with age, from nursing and nest work to guarding and foraging. Africanized colonies swarm very often, up to 16 times a year, and readily abscond.

Conservation

Not Evaluated: no IUCN Red List assessment of the Africanized hybrid was located in this pass. It is an abundant, widespread and in many places invasive hybrid; in the Americas it is managed as a public-safety issue and also kept by beekeepers.

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