Apis

Apis is a genus of eusocial flying insects in the bee family Apidae; only members of this genus are true honey bees. Eight extant species are recognized, comprising 43 total subspecies, though historically seven to eleven species have been recognized by different authorities. Honey bees build perennial nests of hexagonal wax cells within cavities, live in large colonies and produce honey by regurgitating digested carbohydrates as surplus food storage; all species are native to mainland Afro-Eurasia, though the western honey bee has been spread by humans to a cosmopolitan distribution on every continent except Antarctica, introduced to South America in the 16th century, North America in the 17th and Australia in the 19th.