Honey Bee vs Killer Bee
Although honeybees are more popular among people, being aware of killer bees would also benefit. In addition, a proper comparison would profit a lot for any information seeker about bees. This article discusses the characteristics of both these bees, in general and performs a comparison between them in order to understand the difference between honeybee and killer bee.
Honeybee
Honeybees belong to the Genus: Apis, which contains seven distinctive species with 44 subspecies. Honeybees originated in South and South-East Asian region and now they are widespread. Earliest fossil of a honeybee dates back to the Eocene-Oligocene boundary. Three clades are described to classify the seven species of honeybees known as Micrapis (A. florea & A. andreiformes), Megapis (A. dorsata), and Apis (A. cerana and others). The presence of sting in their abdomen is the main weapon for the protection of honeybees, which is evolved to attack other insects with a thicker cuticle. The barbs on the sting are helpful in penetrating the cuticle during attacking. However, if bees attack a mammal, the presence of barbs is not vital, as the mammalian skin is not as thick as in an insect. During the stinging process, the sting detach from the body leaving the abdomen damaged severely. Soon after a stinging, the bee dies, meaning they die to protect their resources. Even after the bee has been detached from the victim’s skin, the sting apparatus keeps delivering the venom. Honeybees, like most of the insects, communicate through chemicals. Their visual signals are predominant in foraging. Their famed Bee Waggle Dance describes the direction and distance to the food source in an informative way. Their hairy hind legs form a corbicular, aka pollen basket, to carry pollen to feed the young. Beeswax and bee honey are valuable in many ways for the man, therefore beekeeping has been a main agricultural practice among people. Naturally, they prefer to make their nests or hives underneath a strong branch of a tree or inside caves.
Killer Bee
Killer bee is a type of honeybee that is hybrid of one of the several of African honeybee species known as Apis mellifera scutellata. The general appearance of killer bee is more like the European honeybees. These highly aggressive insects have slightly short and robust wings. In addition, each of their wings is almost two centimetres in length, covered in fuzz, and brownish in colour with yellow strips. All the four wings are attached to the thorax, the middle section of the body. Their abdomen is larger than the thorax and ends in the stinger. However, their head is smaller than thorax. Killer bees have large-bulbous eyes those are capable of seeing objects well even in the night. As in many hymenopterans, the queen is the largest bee in the colony followed by drones and then the workers. In addition, killer bees can sting only once like other honeybees. They range in Europe and most parts of the African continent but predominantly in south of the Sahara desert.
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What is the difference between Honeybee and Killer Bee? • Not all honeybees are deadly, but killer bees are deadly as their name sounds. • Honeybees originated in Asia whereas the home of killer bees is mainly Africa and Europe. • Honeybees have differing body sizes depending on the species, but killer bees are only half an inch long insects. • Honeybees comprise seven species and killer bees are one particular species of those. • Killer bees are more dreadfully aggressive than other honeybees.
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