stingless bee

stingless bee, (tribe Meliponini), tribe of more than 600 species of social honey-making bees with highly reduced stingers. They are found in tropical and subtropical regions across the globe and are particularly diverse in the Western hemisphere. Stingless bees were the primary honey producers in the Americas before the introduction of western honeybees (Apis mellifera) from Europe, and they can be similarly kept by humans.

Physical description

Stingless bees are small to medium-sized, with body lengths ranging from 2 to 15 mm (0.08 to 0.6 inch), depending on the species. They are typically muted in color, often black, and may have yellow, brown, or red markings. Their bodies are typically covered in fine hairs, which attract pollen. In addition, as corbiculate bees, the workers are equipped with a specialized structure on each hind leg known as a pollen basket, or corbicula, which can transport pollen, resins, and mud. Stingless bees have oval faces, short antennae, and distinct pointed chins. Although their stingers are too small for use in defense, the bees can inflict a painful bite, relying on their strong mandibles to attack threats to their nests.

Natural history and life cycle

As eusocial insects, stingless bees within a colony are highly cooperative and revolve around a queen bee that produces eggs. The male drones serve only to mate with the queen; then they leave the hive to forage alone. Worker bees—all of whom are female—are responsible for food collection, care of the eggs and young, as well as defense of the nest. To protect the colony, a few species, including Tetragonisca angustula, have specialized soldier bees, which are workers whose bodies are larger than those of other workers and have distinct coloration. The level of aggression displayed varies depending on the species. Like most other bees, stingless bees are important pollinators and feed on pollen and nectar from flowers. At least three species of the genus Trigona, called vulture bees, obtain nutrition from decomposing carcasses; they are the only bees known to scavenge for carrion. Colony size depends on the species; it typically amounts to tens of thousands of individuals, though colonies with as few as 100 individuals have been observed. (A western honeybee hive typically has tens or hundreds of thousands of workers).

Most stingless bee species build their nests in preexisting cavities, such as in tree trunks, within walls, or in abandoned ant or termite nests in the ground. The West African slender-stingless bee (Dactylurina staudingeri) and certain other species build exposed nests. A single colony can persist for decades. A material known as geoprolis, made of mud and tree resin mixed with saliva and wax, is used for nest building, along with cerumen, a substance created by mixing collected resin with self-secreted saliva and wax. Some species create elaborate entrance pipes to their hives, which may serve as a protection against invertebrate predators and parasites. Within the hive, the cells are not always arranged in a honeycomb pattern; other patterns, such as spirals, have been seen, and, in some cases, there is no clear pattern to the cells. Indeed, the hive architecture of stingless bees can be considerably more complex and seemingly more random than that of honeybees. Notably, some stingless bees, particularly those of the genus Melipona, have the same-sized cells for larval workers as for queens. The development of a given larva into a worker or a queen depends in part on the diet provided to them.

Economic importance

As a large and diverse group, stingless bees are efficient and important pollinators in both wild and agricultural systems. Valued for their pollination services and honey production, the bees have been kept in artificial structures in the Americas since pre-Columbian times. Indeed, the Maya peoples throughout Mesoamerica were known to practice meliponiculture on a large scale, and such beekeeping is still of local importance in some places. Members of the genera Melipona, Scaptotrigona, and Tetragonisca are among the most prolific honey producers and the most used for meliponiculture, though other genera also make quantities useful to humans. The most-productive stingless bees can produce more honey per bee than western honeybees, but the total amount of honey that can be extracted from a stingless bee colony is lower than that for a honeybee colony, because stingless bees have smaller colonies, and the honey is less accessible within their hives. Given these facts, and the fact that the honey harvest is labor-intensive if the stingless bee colony is to be preserved, honey from such bees is more expensive than that from honeybees.

Compared with the honey of domestic honeybees, that of stingless bees is less sweet and less viscous. Given its higher water content, the honey typically needs to be pasteurized, and it spoils more easily. Hence it is often kept refrigerated. There is some evidence that stingless bee honey, pollen (beebread), and geoprolis have antibiotic, antiseptic, and even anticancer properties.

Conservation and risk factors

As is the case for many other bees, stingless bees are at risk because of habitat loss, deforestation, insecticides and other agrochemicals, and climate change as well as the human introduction of non-native honeybees into their habitats. In addition to increasing competition for food and nest sites, the introduction of western honeybees to areas outside their original range (and the formation of hybrid Africanized honeybees in the Americas) has brought novel pests and diseases.

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