CLOSED: European dark bee?

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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Jul 03, 2007

I'm a little confused about the honey bees I had visiting my Cistus ladanifer, one is dark, the other looks like the 'standard' Apis mellifera.

There seems to be little on the net about the honey bees, as they seem to have interbred with wild bees and there are subspecies.

I found this pic of the European dark bee Apis mellifera mellifera which looks like the darker one I had at the same time as the 'standard' one. I had thought they might be the drones but I don't really know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apis_mellifera_mellifera

Should I just put this in Apis mellifera?

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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Jul 03, 2007

Side view

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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Jul 03, 2007

This I think is the 'standard' honey bee.

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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Jul 03, 2007

Side view, I notice the hairs on the thorax are more orange on this, where they are light on the dark bee.

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kennedyh Churchill, Victoria, Australia(Zone 10a) Jul 03, 2007

Janet
That Wikipedia article is very interesting reading, but it seems that with interbreeding, any really firm identification is pretty specialised. My inclination would be to stick with just Apis mellifera, but perhaps add a note on its being possibly the Dark Bee in the caption,

Ken

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wallaby1 Lincoln, United Kingdom(Zone 8a) Jul 03, 2007

Thanks Ken, that's what I thought best to do.

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