The European dark bee (Apis mellifera mellifera) is a species of honey bee whose original European range stretched from western Russia through Northern Europe and probably down to the Iberian Peninsula. It was domesticated in and hives were brought to North America in the colonial era. They are large for honey bees though they have unusually short tongues. They are sometimes called the German black bee or German dark bee. There are three main races, namely * mellifera (brown bee) * lehzeni (heathland bee) * nigra (black bee),