Honey bee

File:Honey bees.jpg

A Honey bee.

Honey bees (or honeybees) are a subset of bees, primarily distinguished by the production and storage of honey and the construction of colonial nests out of wax. Honey bees are the only extant members of the tribe Apini, all in the genus Apis. Currently, there are only seven recognized species of honey bee with a total of 44 subspecies (Engel, 1999) though historically, anywhere from six to eleven species have been recognized. Honey bees represent only a small fraction of the approximately 20,000 known species of bees. Some other types of related bees produce and store honey, but only members of the genus Apis are true honey bees.

In Halo

• Honey bees were present on the UNSC colony world of Harvest, before it was glassed. Since other animals were transplanted onto the world for practical reasons, it may be that they were intended to continue in their role as pollinators of flowers.
• Bees were an important aspect of the "I Love Bees" Alternate Reality Game.