''Plebeia'' is a genus of mostly small-bodied

stingless bee Stingless bees, sometimes called stingless honey bees or simply meliponines, are a large group of bees (about 550 described species), comprising the tribe Meliponini (or subtribe Meliponina according to other authors). They belong in the family A ...

s, formerly included in the genus ''

Trigona ''Trigona'' is one of the largest genera of stingless bees, comprising about 32 species, exclusively occurring in the New World, and formerly including many more subgenera than the present assemblage; many of these former subgenera have been ele ...

''. Most of the ~45 species are placed in the subgenus ''(Plebeia)'' (''s.s.''), but there also are four species in the subgenus ''(Scaura)''. They differ in only minor structural details, primarily of the hind leg, from other genera that were formerly treated as constituents of ''Trigona''. In some classifications, the genus ''

Schwarziana ''Schwarziana'' is a relatively small genus of South American Meliponini, stingless bees. Like other stingless bees, ''Schwarziana'' are eusociality, eusocial, with large colonies primarily composed of workers and one queen. Unusually for stingle ...

'' is treated as a subgenus within ''Plebeia'', but recent morphological analyses indicate that ''Schwarziana'' is a distinct lineage, while ''Plebeia'' is paraphyletic. Due to their small sizes, in Brazil many species are known as ''abelha-mirim'' (literally "small bee") in Portuguese.

Range

Species of the genus ''Plebeia'' occur from Mexico to Argentina. A few feral colonies of '' P. emerina'' exist in the United States, the result of experimental imports in the 1950s.

List of species

* '' P. alvarengai'' * '' P. amydra'' * '' P. asthenes'' * '' P. aurantia'' ow placed in genus ''Plectoplebeia''">Plectoplebeia.html" ;"title="ow placed in genus '' ow placed in genus '' P. catamarcensis'' * '' P. chondra'' * '' P. cora'' * '' P. deceptrix'' * ''Plebeia domiciliorum">P. domiciliorum'' * ''Plebeia droryana">P. droryana'' * '' P. emerina'' * '' P. emerinoides'' * '' P. flavocincta'' * '' P. franki'' * '' P. frontalis'' * '' P. fulvopilosa'' * '' P. goeldiana'' * '' P. grapiuna'' * '' P. guazurary'' * '' P. hyperplastica'' * '' P. jatiformis'' * '' P. julianii'' * '' P. kerri'' * '' P. llorentei'' * '' P. lucii'' * '' P. malaris'' * '' P. manantlensis'' * '' P. margaritae'' * '' P. melanica'' * '' P. meridionalis'' * '' P. mexica'' * '' P. minima'' * '' P. molesta'' * '' P. mosquito'' * '' P. moureana'' [Now placed in genus '' Plebeia mosquito">P. mosquito'' * ''Plebeia moureana">P. moureana'' [Now placed in genus ''Asperplebeia''">Plebeia moureana">P. moureana'' [Now placed in genus ''Asperplebeia">Plebeia mosquito">P. mosquito'' * '' P. moureana'' P. mutisi'' * ''Plebeia nigriceps">P. nigriceps'' * ''Plebeia nigrifacies">P. nigrifacies'' ow placed in genus ''Plectoplebeia''">Plectoplebeia.html" ;"title="ow placed in genus '' ow placed in genus '' P. orphne'' * '' P. parkeri'' * '' P. peruvicola'' * '' P. phrynostoma'' * '' P. plectoforma'' * '' P. pleres'' * '' P. poecilochroa'' * '' P. pulchra'' * '' P. remota'' * '' P. roubiki'' * '' P. saiqui'' * ''Plebeia silveirai">P. silveirai'' * ''Plebeia tica">P. tica'' [Now placed in genus ''Asperplebeia">Plebeia saiqui">P. saiqui'' * ''Plebeia silveirai">P. silveirai'' * ''Plebeia tica">P. tica'' [Now placed in genus ''Asperplebeia''] * ''Plebeia tigris, P. tigris'' * ''Plebeia tobagoensis, P. tobagoensis'' * ''Plebeia variicolor, P. variicolor'' * ''Plebeia vidali, P. vidali'' * ''Plebeia wittmanni, P. wittmanni''

References

{{Taxonbar, from=Q4047085 Meliponini Bee genera