The term Africanized bee (AHB) refers to the hybrid offspring of the African subspecies Apis mellifera scutellata and various European honey bees (EHB). These bees spread rapidly across the Americas after their accidental release in Brazil in the 1950s. Distinguishing an AHB from a common European honey bee based solely on sight is impractical for the average person.
General Physical Appearance
The worker Africanized Honey Bee shares the same general body structure and coloration as all other Western honey bees, Apis mellifera. They display the familiar segmented body, divided into the head, thorax, and abdomen. The body is covered in fine hairs, and the abdomen is typically banded with alternating stripes of yellowish-brown and dark brown or black. AHBs are nearly indistinguishable from their European relatives to the untrained eye.
The Difficulty in Telling Them Apart
The most significant physical difference is size, but this distinction is extremely subtle. Africanized Honey Bees are, on average, slightly smaller than European Honey Bees, generally by about 10%. This minor size variation is too small for reliable identification without specialized equipment. Furthermore, the natural variation in color and size among European honey bee subspecies creates a significant overlap with the AHB. The physical traits used for classification are quantifiable measurements, not simple visual cues.
How Experts Distinguish Them
Since visual identification is impossible, scientists rely on precise, quantitative methods to confirm the ancestry of a bee colony.
Morphometrics
One common laboratory technique is morphometrics, which involves taking highly accurate measurements of specific body parts. Scientists measure characteristics such as the length of the fore-wing, the angle of the wing veins, and the length of the leg segments. These measurements are analyzed using statistical tools, such as discriminant analysis, to determine the probability of a bee being Africanized or European. A simplified version of this technique, known as the Fast African Bee Identification System (FABIS), is frequently utilized.
Genetic Analysis
The most definitive method is genetic analysis, specifically DNA testing. This involves sequencing the bee’s DNA to determine its specific ancestral lineage. Experts often look at mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) to trace the maternal line, which is highly indicative of African ancestry (A. m. scutellata). Genomic studies quantify the proportion of African versus European genes across the entire genome, confirming the hybrid status of the AHB.