Mellifera


Origin: Greek

Meaning: composed of Greek melli (honey) and ferre (to bear) meaning "honey-bearing". It's the scientific name for the honeybee.

Interesting fact: Carolus Linnaeus (1707-1778), known as the father of modern taxonomy, was a Swedish botanist, physician, and zoologist. He created the binomial nomenclature, a system in which each species is given a name made up of a generic and specific term- like the honeybee, Apis mellifera (Apis means bee in Latin). Linnaeus, who named the honeybee, later tried to change the name mellifera into mellifica (honey-making) when he realized that the bees don't carry honey but nectar but he was too late. Apparently, there's a rule in the International Code of Zoological Nomenclature that the older name takes precedence so mellifera stuck.

Nicknames: Mel, Meli/Melli, Fera

Melifera is a variant spelling of the name.

Variants:
  • Mellifer/ Melifer (a unisex version of the name)

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