Himalayan giant honey bee
The Himalayan giant honey bee is the biggest honey bee in the world, up to 3 centimetres long. It lives high in the Himalaya mountains. It hangs its huge open honeycombs under overhangs on tall cliffs.
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Fun facts
Most nests are 2500 to 3000 metres up in the mountains.
One nest can hold as much as 60 kilograms of honey.
It flies to collect food as high as 4100 metres.
A small bird called the yellow-rumped honeyguide likes to eat its beeswax, so it is often seen near the nests.
Honey hunters in Nepal climb the cliffs to collect its honey.
Most asked questions about Himalayan giant honey bee
?What is the biggest honey bee in the world?
The Himalayan giant honey bee. One bee can be up to 3 centimetres long.
?Where does the Himalayan giant honey bee live?
High in the Himalayas, building its nests on steep cliffs.
?How much honey is in a Himalayan giant honey bee nest?
One nest can hold up to 60 kilograms of honey.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Apis laboriosa
- Named by
- Smith
- Group
- Bees and bumblebees
- Family
- Apidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Hymenoptera > Apidae
- Lives on
- Asia
- Also known as
- Himalayan cliff bee
Where the facts come from
- Apis laboriosa (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by L. Shyamal. CC BY-SA 3.0, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.
If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.
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