Amazing creatures #6, Melipona bee. (A stingless bee?)

It may seem strange that there are stingless bees, but there are. In addition, it is known that they help fight diseases such as cataracts and asthma and that their cultivation and commercialization can become a business alternative for the Amazonian regions.

Currently, the honey and wax produced by these insects are highly valued internationally, for their medicinal benefits and their characteristics of smell, color and texture. However, ignorance of its existence has led to the failure of this species, with which it could become a very important business alternative for the region.

Unlike beekeeping, which is monospecific, meliponiculture is a practice where bees belong to one or hundreds of different species, so there is diversity of both hives and cultivation techniques, to the point that in each tropical region or subtropical adapt their management practices and production to the species of bee in the region. For this reason there is a great variety of breeding methods.

In addition, there is another difference. In beekeeping, honeycombs are always used to extract honey, while stingless bees store honey and pollen in amphoras, which must be broken or crushed to extract the product. The entrance to the nest in general is mud mixed with propolis, and is so small that only allows the entry or exit of a bee at a time.

Melipones and trigones produce less honey than Africanized bees. But the honey of the bees without agujón is lighter, more liquid, crystallizes less, has low content of sugars and is quoted very well in the international market, since it can be worth ten or twelve times more than that produced by Africanized bees. The high cost is due to its use for medicinal purposes, linked to the cure and treatment of ocular affections, such as cataracts, and to combat asthma.

The genetic resources of these bees are invaluable. They would allow the adaptation of honey production to possible climatic changes, since they play a crucial role in the pollination of the native or native flora of the tropics. Its conservation and knowledge can contribute so that the Amazonian forest is conserved through the sustainable use of its natural resources, since they are responsible for 40% of the pollination of the Amazonian native forest.

The average productivity of a melipone hive (Melipona scutellaris) is about four to five liters of honey per hive / year and that of trigones (jataí) is one liter / year. In addition, other products can be made with the derivatives of work in the hives, such as soap, syrup, candles, shampoo, royal jelly and masks.

If they do not sting, because they do not have a sting, then the concern arises of how they defend themselves. They do not sting, but they have defense mechanisms, like bites and expulsion of caustic substances that cause irritation in eyes and ears.

Since pre-Hispanic times, the Mayan and Nahua groups of Central America raised stingless bees for their honey and wax. This practice is known as meliponiculture. When the Spaniards came to America, they found this activity developed. Meliponaires from hundreds of Melipona beecheii colonies supplied honey and wax for export to Europe. Today, subsistence farmers continue to raise stingless bees in forest areas. Although Melipona beecheii is the preferred species for its cultivation, eight other species are also reared in the yards.

The honey and wax of almost all other stingless species are harvested directly in the forest. The honey of certain species is considered very medicinal and is sold at prices equivalent to three daily salaries of field work per bottle. Investigations confirm that Melipona beecheii honey has a high antibiotic activity. However, despite the popularity of stingless bees among rural meliponiculturists, their exploitation declines rapidly due to massive deforestation, changed agricultural practices and rustic meliponicultural practices.

Although these practices were previously appropriate to maintain an abundant production, today they do not coincide with the changes that have occurred in the environment of bees. In particular, the species that depend on tree holes to make their nest have drastically decreased. Now, the Melipona beecheii is in danger of extinction.

Meliponinos (Meliponini) are a tribe of apimidae hymenoptera of the Apidae family known vulgarly as stingless bees, pegones, aricas (in Venezuela) or angelitas (in Colombia). They are social bees that live in permanent colonies, like European bees. They are distributed throughout the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, in Central and South America, Africa, Asia and Australia.

More than 500 species of stingless bees are known, discovering new ones year after year. The size of the melipónidos varies from the 2 mm of length in the Trigona sort, until 2 cm in Melipona, a length similar to the one of Apis mellifera.

Some species of this tribe are very old, and existed at the time that America separated from Africa; It is estimated that the group originated in the Gondwana continent. The bee fossil of the oldest Apidae family known to date, conserved in amber, is of a species called Trigona prisca, which lived in the Cretaceous period, 60 to 80 million years ago.