The Western honey bee or European honey bee (Apis mellifera) is a species of
honey bee. The
genus Apis is
Latin for "bee", and mellifera is
Greek from meli- "honey" + ferre "to carry" - hence the scientific name means "honey-carrying bee". This is technically wrong, since honey bees carry
nectar and produce
honey. However, the name was coined in 1758 by
Carolus Linnaeus who in a subsequent publication tried to correct it to Apis mellifica ("honey-making bee"); according to the rules of
synonymy in
zoological nomenclature, the older name has precedence. Some people who are unaware of this still
use the incorrect subsequent spelling. As of October 28, 2006, the
Honey Bee Genome Sequencing Consortium fully sequenced and analyzed the genome of Apis mellifera.
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