Africanised and European honey bees. Africanised honey bee drones surrounding a European queen honey bee (centre, marked with a pink dot). The Africanised honey bee is a hybrid of the African honey bee (Apis mellifera scutellata) and European honey bee species, such as Apis mellifera ligustica and Apis mellifera iberiensis. They are the result of the accidental release of Tanzanian bees in Brazil in 1957. The Africanised bees are defensive, and as European queen bees tend to mate preferentially with African drones, the Africanised variety is replacing the European. Africanised bees are normally difficult to distinguish from the European varieties.