The
western honey bee or
European honey bee (
Apis mellifera) is a species of
honey bee. The
genus name
Apis is
Latin for "bee", and
mellifera means "honey-bearing". It has a defined social caste system and complex communication behaviors, such as intricate dance routines to indicate food availability. It is frequently maintained by beekeepers for its honey product. This species is widely distributed and an important pollinator for agriculture, though it is currently threatened by
colony collapse disorder. It is also an important organism for scientific studies on social insects, especially as it now has a fully sequenced genome.