Africanized bee

English

Noun

Africanized bee (plural Africanized bees)

1. A hybrid of the western honey bee (Apis mellifera), produced originally by crossbreeding of the East African lowland honey bee (A. m. scutellata) with various European honey bee subspecies such as the Italian honey bee (A. m. ligustica) and the Iberian honey bee (A. m. iberiensis), and known for being defensive and aggressive.

   Synonyms: Africanized honey bee, (colloquial) killer bee