EuropeData deficient
Western honeybee
Apis mellifera
A busy insect that lives in hives of up to 60,000 bees and turns flower nectar into honey.
- Weight
- About 0.1 g
- Size
- About 1.5 cm long
- Lifespan
- 5–6 weeks in summer
- Top speed
- About 25 km/h flying
- Diet
- Nectar and pollen
How heavy is that?
So light that a 40 kg kid weighs as much as 400,000 of them
Where it lives
Three things to know
- A bee dances to tell the others where to find flowers.
- In its whole life, one bee makes only about a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.
- About a third of the food we eat depends on pollinators like bees.
Compare with…
- Weight
- Western honeybee0.1 gA 10-year-old kid40 kgThe kid weighs about 400,000× as much as the honeybee
- Size
- Western honeybee1.5 cmA 10-year-old kid1.4 mThe kid is about 93× as big as the honeybee
- Top speed
- Western honeybee25 km/hA 10-year-old kid20 km/hThe honeybee is about 1.3× as fast as the kid
- Lifespan
- Western honeybee5.2 wksA 10-year-old kid80 yrsThe kid can live about 800× as long as the honeybee
Food chain
- Flower nectarProducer
Western honeybeeThis animal- Bee-eater