Workers are medium-sized, roughly a tenth larger than the eastern honey bee that shares their forests and with which they are easily confused. On Borneo they are a striking light orange with dark brown bands on the abdomen, hence the name 'red bee'. On the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra they tend to be darker and coppery.
It lives in tropical evergreen forest, chiefly on Borneo (Sabah and Sarawak in Malaysia, Kalimantan in Indonesia), and more rarely on the Malay Peninsula and Sumatra. It occurs from the lowlands up to about 1,600 metres.
It nests in tree hollows, where it builds several combs; colonies appear to be fairly small. Relatively little is known about its nest architecture and colony life.
Among the things that keep it apart from the eastern honey bee is the timing of mating flights: its drones fly late in the afternoon, roughly between four and six o'clock, while eastern honey bee drones fly earlier. As a result the two species do not interbreed.
The species was described in 1906 by Hugo von Buttel-Reepen but was long confused with other bees and only recognised again in the late twentieth century. It is threatened by forest clearance and conversion to oil palm, rubber and tea plantations, as well as by coal mining.