Africanized bee
1
8.0
- noun
- /ˈæfrɪkəˌnaɪzd bi/
- Specialized
:
abeja africanizada
- PHOTO: European bee stingers (magnified about 300 times) are identical to Africanized bee stingers, making visual identification impossible.
- feral Africanized bees
Examples
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"The Africanized bee is unpredictable; you don't know when or what provokes it.
Academic text (1996) -
But Texas beekeepers are now having to deal with the intrusion of Africanized bees in their apiaries.
Academic text (1996) -
Mexico simply had the Africanized bees before we did," says Wilson.
Academic text (1996) -
"These Africanized bees do sting me more.
Academic text (1996) -
The Africanized bees are expected to reach Texas this year, cross into Arizona in two to three years.
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But the traplines also served as an early warning system for the United States as far as the location of the Africanized bees.
Academic text (1995) -
The main difference between a traditional bee and an Africanized bee is their aggressiveness.
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If I was to do this to an Africanized bees' hive, I could have several hundred stings in a matter of minutes.
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But spontaneous hybridization within already domesticated populations can also be negatively valued, such as in the case of the Africanized bee.
Academic text (2010) -
The Africanized bee is known for its aggressive behavior and rapid spread through the Americas.
Synonyms
3
6.9
An aggressive bee from Brazil made by crossing African and European honeybees
1
7.2
A honey bee bred from African and European bees that is very aggressive and spreads across the Americas
How Aggressive
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly compositional: 'Africanized' (resulting from crossbreeding with African populations) + 'bee' yields a bee that has been Africanized. A B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the basic referent (a bee produced by crossbreeding with African bees); the specific connotation of increased aggression is additional encyclopedic information but not required for basic understanding.
Etymology
The noun Africanized bee comes from bees made in Brazil by mixing African and European honeybees, so the name shows they come from African bees. Because the African bees made the new bees more likely to attack and they spread fast, the word Africanized now warns that these bees are 'very aggressive'.