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Melipona
Melipona eburnean
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Apidae
Subfamily:	Apinae
Tribe:	Meliponini
Genus:	Melipona

Melipona is a genus of eusocial stingless bees in the family Apidae, of which there are at least 50 different species, representing a fraction of the over 20,000 bee species found worldwide. Members of Melipona commonly inhabit lowland wet forests and are distributed throughout tropical America from Mexico to Argentina, and are most diversity distributed in the Amazon Basin. Similarly to the honeybee, species of bee belonging to Melipona are capable of producing honey.

Phylogeny

The genus Melipona belongs to the tribe Meliponini, one of the four different groups of the monophyletic corbiculate bee group within the bee family Apidae. The other three are the highly eusocial honeybees, Apini, the mostly solitary orchid bees, Euglossini, and the simplistically eusocial bumblebees, Bombini. Current research suggests that Apini and Euglossini are more closely related to each other, while Bombini and Meliponini are more closely related, as seen in the cladogram below:

Corbiculate bees	Apini (honeybees) Euglossini (orchid bees) Bombini (bumblebees) Meliponini (stingless bees)

However, this conclusion suggests that eusociality must have evolved twice, as both clades independently developed an advanced form of eusociality (in Apini and Meliponini). Despite this somewhat complex evolutionary path, dual origins of eusociality appear to be the most likely scenario, and are consistent with the results of morphological and molecular analysis.

According to fossil-calibrated divergence times estimates, eusociality in corbiculate bees evolved at least 87 million years ago, in the Cretaceous Period, although it may have evolved as late as 95 million years ago. The tribe Meliponini is anywhere from 81 to 95 million years old.

Taxonomy

Species within the genus Melipona belong to the tribe Meliponini, more commonly known as the "stingless bees", which includes approximately 500 stingless species native to Southeast Asia, Africa, Australia, and Central and South America. Melipona is a genus within the family Apidae, of which all bee species belong to. The genus also belongs to the order Hymenoptera, composed of all wasp, bee, ant, and sawfly species. The genus contains approximately 50 species, although more may be undiscovered, as well as four subgenera: Michmelia, Eomelipona, Melikerria, and Melipona s. str.

[include cladogram of subgenera]

General description

Melipona sp., female

Members of Melipona are large bees (8 – 15 mm) that are often furry and robust in appearance. Their most striking feature is their reduced stinger, which makes them unable to sting predators. Despite this, they are able to defend their hives by biting attackers. Melipona varys greatly in coloration, and may be yellow, brown, or orange. Their wings are somewhat small and just barely extend from the apex of its metasoma. Like most bee species, Melipona are eusocial and are characterized by cooperative brood care, labor division, and generational overlap.

Distribution and habitat

Melipona are almost exclusively found in tropical lowland forests and are widespread throughout the Neotropics, from Sinaloa and Tamaulipas (México) to Tucumán and Misiones (Argentina). Their greatest species diversity is within the Amazon Basin, where additional species may still be undiscovered. Due to consistent high temperatures throughout the year, members of Melipona are able to thrive year-round. The majority of Melipona species will build hives above ground in trees.

Behavior

Hives

Melipona scutellaris pollen pot

Most species of Melipona will build hives in trees, either among branches or in hollowed tree trunks, but may also build nests between rock crevices, in the ground, or in man-made objects like storage containers. Typical nests will contain anywhere between 300 to 80,000 worker bees, and population size is often dependent on species. Pollen and honey are stored in the nests in egg-shaped pots made of beeswax and plant resin, which are distributed throughout the hive around a set of brood combs, where larvae are kept and cared for. Larvae are provided with small amounts of nectar and pollen placed within their individual cell. The larvae feeds on this mixture until they are able to emerge in their adult form.

Communication

Like all eusocial insects, members of Melipona are excellent communicators. While all species of the genus Apis are capable of complex communication methods, only some species belonging to Melipona are able to do so. Communication methods among bees include the "waggle dance", where bees move about in a figure eight motion to communicate to others about the direction and distance of a particular object, such as pollen-rich flowers or a water source. Some species, like Melipona panamica and Melipona seminigra, may perform short flights outside of hives in the direction of a desirable resource, while those inside the hive produce pulses of sound that correlate to the distance a bee within the hive must fly to reach a food source. However, whether or not this information is understood and utilized by fellow bees is not completely known and is still a matter of investigation.

Melipona and humans

Honey production

One of the most beneficial features of Melipona is that they are able to produce honey. This, alongside their inability to sting, makes them ideal candidates for farmers. In modern times, the use of stingless honeybees in general has received little attention, with meliponiculture restricted to the areas in which Melipona naturally inhabit - central and South America. In the vast majority of cases, meliponiculture is performed informally by small, local farmers.

Honey produced by stingless bees is very different from honey produced by honeybees. Honey from stingless bees has a water content averaging 20% - 42%, while honeybee honey tends to be below 20%. In addition, while the flavor of honeybee honey is rich and sweet, stingless bee honey can have a slightly sour taste depending on the bee species and the types of flowers it has visited.

Of the stingless bees native to Central and Southern America, the largest ones are farmed for their honey, as larger species tend to produce more honey. These include Melipona subnitida, the main cultivated species in northern Brazil, as well as Melipona beechihas, which has been exploited for centuries to farm and collect honey.

See also

•  Stingless bee
•  Melittology
•  Bees and toxic chemicals

References

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