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• n  social bee often domesticated for the honey it produces

• On the "waggle dance" that a nectar-gathering honeybee does in the hive to alert others that there's an orange tree nearby: "She heads to the dance floor and does her waggle .
• The PNAS team's work was possible only because the honeybee's genome is one of the few animal genomes that scientists have decoded in full.
• Scientists map the genes of the honeybee, a key agricultural pollinator whose numbers are plummeting.

• Apis mellifera

News & Articles

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• U.K. Honeybee Colony Losses in Winter Were Highest on Record
  The U.K. lost a third of its honeybee colonies during the winter of 2012-13, the highest rate since an annual survey began, after adverse weather last year prevented bees from leaving hives to seek pollen.
  June 13, 2013 - Bloomberg
• Honeybee shortage threatens Calif. almond crop
  SACRAMENTO - The honeybee population has been dwindling for years, but Californians are now seeing the effects of the shortage firsthand.
  June 11, 2013 - News10 Sacramento
• Honeybee shortage threatens local crops, national food supply
  SACRAMENTO - The honeybee population has been dwindling for years, but Californians are now seeing the effects of the shortage firsthand.
  June 11, 2013 - News10 Sacramento

Quotes

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• Mike Johanns in Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
  The honeybee population is absolutely critical to agricultural production,Johanns said at a ceremony for the release of a postage stamp recognizing National Pollination Week.
• Vince Cable in guardian.co.uk
  Cable said: "The battle has partly been won over the funding, and overall awareness about the importance of honeybee populations means that government can no longer treat them as a marginal issue. But there is still a question over how the money is...
• David Bellamy in News of the World
  TV wildlife expert, David Bellamy said: "Albert Einstein once said that if the bees disappeared then man would have only four years of life left". "Here, the honeybee is responsible for helping to produce a third of the British diet and it's...