World’s largest honey bee

Apis dorsata laboriosa, the Himalayan honey bee, is the world’s largest honey bee found only in the Himalayas, in the mountainous regions of Bhutan, the Chinese province of Yunnan, India and Nepal. Adults measure up to 1.2” in length. It mostly nests at altitudes between 8,200 and 9,800 feet, building very large nests (that sometimes reach 5 feet in diameter) under overhangs on the south-western faces of vertical cliffs. A single nest can contain huge quantities of honey (about 60 kg). The honey costs on average five times more than regular honey, not only due to its different taste, rarity and purported medicinal value, but due to intoxicating qualities.