Coba MEX - Stingless Bees - Meliponini

            Stingless bees (SB), sometimes called stingless honey bees or simply meliponines, are a large group of bees (from about 462 to 552 described species), comprising the tribe Meliponin (or subtribe Meliponina according to other authors). 

They belong in the family Apidae (subfamily Apinae), and are closely related to common honey bees (HB, tribe Apini), orchid bees (tribe Euglossini), and bumblebees (tribe Bombini). These four bee tribes belong to the corbiculate bees monophyletic group. Meliponines have stingers, but they are highly reduced and cannot be used for defense, though these bees exhibit other defensive behaviors and mechanisms. 

Meliponines are not the only type of bee incapable of stinging: all male bees and many female bees of several other families, such as Andrenidae and Megachilidae (tribe Dioxyini), also cannot sting.

The main honey producing bees of this group generally belong to the genera Scaptotrigona, Tetragonisca, Melipona and Austroplebeia, although there are other genera containing species that produce some usable honey. They are farmed in meliponiculture in the same way that European honey bees (genus Apis) are cultivated in apiculture.

The majority of native eusocial bees of Central and South America are SB, although only a few of them produce honey on a scale such that they are farmed by humans. The Neotropics, with approximately 426 species, boast the highest abundance and species richness, ranging from Cuba and Mexico in the north to Argentina in the south.

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Taken in: Mexico / Quintana Roo / Coba (show map)

Taken on: November 11, 2012

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