''Melipona'' is a
genus
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nom ...
of
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, widespread in warm areas of the
Neotropic
The Neotropical realm is one of the eight biogeographic realms constituting Earth's land surface. Physically, it includes the tropical terrestrial ecoregions of the Americas and the entire South American temperate zone.
Definition
In ...
s, from
Sinaloa
Sinaloa (), officially the Estado Libre y Soberano de Sinaloa ( en, Free and Sovereign State of Sinaloa), is one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the Federal Entities of Mexico. It is divided into 18 municipalities and ...
and
Tamaulipas
Tamaulipas (), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Tamaulipas ( es, Estado Libre y Soberano de Tamaulipas), is a state in the northeast region of Mexico; one of the 31 states which, along with Mexico City, comprise the 32 Federal Entiti ...
(México) to
Tucumán and
Misiones (Argentina). About 70
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriat ...
are known.
[Grüter, C. 2020. ''Stingless Bees: Their Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution''. ''Springer Nature'', 385 pp.] The largest producer of honey from ''Melipona'' bees in Mexico is in the state of
Yucatán
Yucatán (, also , , ; yua, Yúukatan ), officially the Free and Sovereign State of Yucatán,; yua, link=no, Xóot' Noj Lu'umil Yúukatan. is one of the 31 states which comprise the federal entities of Mexico. It comprises 106 separate mun ...
where bees are studied at an interactive park called "Bee Planet" which is within the
Cuxtal Ecological Reserve.
Several species are kept for
honey
Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...
production, such as in
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, where some are well-known enough to have common names, including ''uruçu'', ''mandaçaia'', ''jandaíra'', and ''manduri''. ''Melipona'' honey has long been used by humans and now is of minor commercial importance. Research is going on in improved beekeeping techniques.
The Melipona bee is the only pollinator known to pollinate the
vanilla
Vanilla is a spice derived from orchids of the genus '' Vanilla'', primarily obtained from pods of the Mexican species, flat-leaved vanilla ('' V. planifolia'').
Pollination is required to make the plants produce the fruit from whic ...
plant.
Pollination
Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an Stamen, anther of a plant to the stigma (botany), stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by Anemophily, wind. Pollinating agents can ...
by Melipona bee has only occurred in Mexico and almost all vanilla for commercial production is hand pollinated.
Subtaxa
The following are some proposed
subtaxa of ''Melipona'', although they are not yet widely used.
* ''
Eomelipona''
* ''
Melikerria''
* ''Melipona'' (''
sensu stricto
''Sensu'' is a Latin word meaning "in the sense of". It is used in a number of fields including biology, geology, linguistics, semiotics, and law. Commonly it refers to how strictly or loosely an expression is used in describing any particular c ...
'')
* ''
Michmelia''
Selected taxa
The genus includes the following species:
* ''
Melipona amazonica''
(Schulz, 1905)
* ''
Melipona asilvai''
( Moure, 1971)
* ''
Melipona baeri''
(Vachal, 1904)
* ''
Melipona beecheii''
(Bennett, 1831)
* ''
Melipona belizeae''
(Schwarz, 1932)
* ''
Melipona bicolor
''Melipona bicolor'' , commonly known as Guaraipo or Guarupu, is a eusocial bee found primarily in South America. It is an inhabitant of the Araucaria Forest and the Atlantic Rainforest, and is most commonly found from South to East Brazil, B ...
''
(Lepeletier, 1836) –'' guarupu, guaraipo''
* ''
Melipona boliviana''
(Schwarz, 1932)
* ''
Melipona brachychaeta''
(Moure, 1950)
* ''
Melipona bradleyi''
(Schwarz, 1932) (Melipona illustris (Schwarz, 1932))
* ''
Melipona capixaba''
(Moure & Camargo, 1995)
* ''
Melipona captiosa''
(Moure, 1962)
* ''
Melipona carrikeri''
(Cockerell, 1919)
* ''
Melipona colimana''
(Ayala, 1999)
* ''
Melipona compressipes''
(Fabricius, 1804) – ''tiúba''
** ''Melipona compressipes manaosensis'' – ''jupará''
* ''
Melipona costaricaensis''
(Cockerell, 1919)
* ''
Melipona cramptoni''
(Cockerell, 1920)
* ''
Melipona crinita''
(Moure & Kerr, 1950)
* ''
Melipona dubia''
(Moure & Kerr, 1950)
* ''
Melipona eburnea''
(Friese, 1900)
* ''
Melipona fasciata''
(Latreille, 1811)
* ''
Melipona fasciculata''
(Smith, 1854)
* ''
Melipona favosa''
(Fabricius, 1798)
* ''
Melipona fuliginosa''
(Lepeletier, 1836)
* ''
Melipona flavolineata''
(Friese, 1900)
* ''
Melipona fulva''
(Lepeletier, 1836)
* ''
Melipona fuscata''
(Lepeletier, 1836)
* ''
Melipona fuscopilosa''
(Moure & Kerr, 1950)
* ''
Melipona fuscipes''
(Latreille, 1811)
* ''
Melipona grandis''
(Guérin-Méneville, 1844)
* ''
Melipona illota''
(Cockerell, 1919)
* ''
Melipona indecisa''
(Cockerell, 1919)
* ''
Melipona interrupta
''Melipona interrupta'', commonly known as jandaíra in Brazil, is a species of eusocial stingless bee in the family Apidae and tribe Meliponini
Stingless bees, sometimes called stingless honey bees or simply meliponines, are a large group of ...
''
(Latreille, 1811) – ''jandaíra''
* ''
Melipona lateralis''
(Erichson, 1848)
* ''
Melipona lupitae''
(Ayala, 1999)
* ''
Melipona mandacaia''
(Smith, 1863)
* ''
Melipona marginata''
(Lepeletier, 1836) – ''manduri, manduri menor, mandurim, minduri, gurupu-do-miúdo, taipeira''
* ''
Melipona melanopleura''
(Cockerell, 1919)
* ''
Melipona melanoventer''
(Schwarz, 1932)
* ''
Melipona merrillae''
(Cockerell, 1919)
* ''
Melipona micheneri''
(Schwarz, 1951)
* ''
Melipona mimetica''
(Cockerell, 1914)
* ''
Melipona mondury''
(Smith, 1863)
* ''
Melipona nebulosa''
(Camargo, 1988)
* ''
Melipona nigrescens''
(Friese, 1900)
* ''
Melipona obscurior''
(Moure, 1971)
* ''
Melipona ogilviei''
(Schwarz, 1932)
* ''
Melipona orbignyi''
(Guérin-Méneville, 1844)
* ''
Melipona panamica''
(Cockerell, 1919)
* ''
Melipona paraensis''
(Ducke, 1916)
* ''
Melipona peruviana''
(Friese, 1900)
* ''
Melipona puncticollis''
(Friese, 1902)
* ''
Melipona quadrifasciata''
(Lepeletier, 1836) – ''mandaçaia, amanaçaia, manaçaia, "uruçu"''
** ''M. q. anthidioides''
* ''
Melipona quinquefasciata''
(Lepeletier, 1836) – ''mandaçaia-da-terra, mandaçaia-do-chão, uruçu-do-chão''
* ''
Melipona rufescens''
(Friese, 1900 )
* ''
Melipona ruficrus'' – ''irapuá
* ''
Melipona rufiventris''
(Lepeletier, 1836) – ''uruçu-amarela, tuiuva, tujuba, bugia''
** ''M. r. paraensis'' – ''uruçu-boca-de-ralo
* ''
Melipona salti''
(Schwarz, 1932)
* ''
Melipona schwarzi''
(Moure, 1963)
* ''
Melipona scutellaris''
(Latreille, 1811) – ''uruçu-nordestina, "uruçu"''
* ''
Melipona seminigra''
(Friese, 1903)
** ''M. s. atrofulva''
** ''M. s. abunensis''
** ''M. s. merrillae'' – ''boca-de-renda''
** ''M. s. pernigra''
* ''
Melipona solani''
(Cockerell, 1912)
* ''
Melipona subnitida''
(Ducke, 1911) – ''jandaíra''
* ''
Melipona titania''
(Gribodo, 1893)
* ''
Melipona torrida''
(Friese, 1917)
* ''
Melipona triplaridis''
(Cockerell, 1925)
* ''
Melipona tumupasae''
(Schwarz, 1932)
* ''
Melipona variegatipes''
(Gribodo, 1893)
** ''M. v. lautipes''
* ''
Melipona yucatanica''
(Camargo, Moure & Roubik, 1988)
See also
*
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 ...
*
List of stingless bees of Brazil
*
Melittology
*
Bees and toxic chemicals
Bees can suffer serious effects from toxic chemicals in their environments. These include various synthetic chemicals, particularly insecticides, as well as a variety of naturally occurring chemicals from plants, such as ethanol resulting from th ...
* ''
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 el ...
'', another genus of stingless bees
References
{{Authority control
Bee genera
Orchid pollinators
Taxa named by Johann Karl Wilhelm Illiger