Africanized Honey Bee

Description:

Africanized honey bees, known colloquially as "killer bees", are a hybrid of the Western honey bee species, (Apis mellifera), produced originally by cross-breeding of the African honey bee (A. m. scutellata), with various European honey bees such as the Italian bee A. m. ligustica and the Iberian bee A. m. iberiensis.

Notes:

The Africanized honey bee was first introduced to Brazil in the 1950s in an effort to increase honey production; but, in 1957, 26 swarms accidentally escaped quarantine and, since then, have spread throughout South and Central America and arrived in North America in 1985. This species was discovered to have spread into the American Northwest in 2011.