• Apis mellifera mellifera: (German honeybee) Northern Europe, domesticated in modern times, taken to North America in colonial times

• Apis mellifera carnica: (Carniolan honeybee) Southeastern Europe, popular with beekeepers due to its gentleness.

• Apis mellifera ligustica: (Italian honeybee) Italy - the most commonly kept race in North America, South America and southern Europe. They are relatively gentle, not terribly inclined to swarm, and produce a large surplus of honey.

• Apis mellifera cypria: (Cyprian honeybee) The island of Cyprus. This sub-species has the reputation of being rather more fierce than the neighboring Italian sub-species, from which it is isolated by the Mediterranean Sea.

• Apis mellifera caucasica: (Caucasian honeybee) Caucasus Mountains. This sub-species is regarded as being relatively gentle and industrious.

• Apis mellifera lamarckii: (Lamarkian honeybee) Egypt

• Apis mellifera scutellata: (African honeybee) central and west Africa, hybrids of this species in the Americas are called Africanized bees. The intense struggle for survival of honeybees in sub-Saharan Africa is given as the reason that this sub-species is proactive in defending the hive, and also more likely to abandon an existing hive and swarm to a more secure location. They direct more of their energies to defensive behaviors and less of their energies to honey storage.

• Apis mellifera anatoliaca: (Anatolan honeybee) Turkey

• Apis mellifera capensis: (Cape honeybee) South Africa

• Apis mellifera nubica: (Nubian honeybee) Sudan

• Apis mellifera syriaca: (Syrian honeybee Near East

• Apis mellifera iberica: (Iberian honeybee) Spain, Portugal

• Apis mellifera monticola: High altitudes of east Africa

• Apis mellifera litorca: Low elevations of east Africa

• Apis mellifera sahariensis: Northwest Africa A. I. Root's The ABC and XYZ of Beekeeping, indicates that this sub-species faces few predators other than humans and is therefore extremely gentle. Moreover, because of the low density of nectar-producing vegetation around the oases it colonizes, it forages up to five miles, much farther than sub-species from less arid regions.

• Apis mellifera meda: Iraq

This is not an exhaustive list. Additions and information on each race is welcomed