Because of their economic importance, actively managed pollinators. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to lee, j. The melipona beecheii lives in the jungle of the yucatan peninsula. Queen execution and caste conflict in the stingless bee melipona. Throughout history, melipona beecheii has been the most extensively. Melipona bee honey arca del gusto slow food foundation. The majority of the individuals harvested one commodity pollen, nectar or resin during a single day. Extreme effects of season on the foraging activities and.
Stingless bees, sometimes called stingless honey bees or simply meliponines, are a large group of bees about 500 species, comprising the tribe meliponini or subtribe meliponina according to other authors. Please contribute to wikispecies by verifing the validity of this taxon and adding the appropriate references. Melipona quinquefasciata in ne brazil 479 occurrence and biogeographic aspects of melipona quinquefasciata in ne brazil hymenoptera, apidae limaverde, l. The maya traditional doctors ah dzac used the honey extensively as a fundamental part of their medicine. It prefers to nest close to the soil, in hollowed trunks or roots of trees. A molecular phylogeny of the stingless bee genus melipona. Half of the agemarked foragers specialised on nectar or pollen during. Labor division in melipona compressipes fasciculata smith. Brasil 261 159 are different when compared with those of m. The log hives of 19 colonies of the stingless bee melipona beecheii were opened and adult and brood populations, stored nectar and pollen.
A definitive assessment of the status of pollinator populations in north america will hinge on the quality and availability of data from a variety of wellcorroborated sources, and such information is not available for every taxon. Apis mellifera vs melipona beecheii cuban polifloral. Melipona beecheii is a species of eusocial, stingless bees of the order hymenoptera and the. Foraging behaviour of individually marked workers of melipona beecheii meliponinae was monitored in costa rica to investigate individual specialisation for different materials and how this influences foraging longevity.
Media in category melipona beecheii the following 6 files are in this category, out of 6 total. In the center, the hive entrance marked with a cross, what is unknown is if it was a prehispanic custom that means the possession of ahmuzencab mayan god of the bees or if its an inducted spanish custom to indicate that the product. The melipona bees melipona beecheii also known as the sacred mayan bee or. Your use of this pdf, the bioone web site, and all posted and associated content. Melipona definition is a genus of honeybees of tropical america that comprises small bees with a vestigial but functionless sting. We used video cameras connected to a pc to monitor all departures and returns of foragers and the types of materials they carried. Does the melipona bee and the vanilla bean defy evolution. This study reports the influence of season on foraging activities and internal colonial parameters of melipona asilvai in an atlantic forest area of northeast brazil. Its color varies depending on the native flowers visited by these bees, ranging from nearly transparent to dark amber, and it features more nutritional and curative.
We started in 2014, when the visual artist diana mendieta, having the urge to save our environment, began to. Individual foraging, activity level and longevity in the. Mexico melipona honey project sost internationalsost. The mexico melipona honey project is a fiveyear project initiated in january 2009, with funding and support from the cooperative travel and thomas cook in mexico. The xunamcab bees melipona beecheii in a wood jobon. Antagonism of apis mellifera and melipona beecheii for the sources of feeding. Nowadays, it is considered a species in danger of extinction and it is imminent to save the whole environment for it to have the necessary conditions for its survival. I watched a video on the melipona bee and how the vanilla bean plant could not survive without it proving creation to be true.
To prevent these misunderstandings and provide more transparent information, a scheme is made with detailed information of the method used to identify the plant species collected by melipona beecheii, melipona sp or apis mellifera when this was known or retraceable by the author. One characteristic medical practice of ancient maya people was the extensive use of honey kab of the native stingless bee melipona beecheii, xunan kab. Rearing of the xunankab bee melipona beecheii had been practised widely by the mayans of the yucatan peninsula long before arrival of. Melipona beecheii is kept almost exclusively in traditional log hives. Melipona print iconographia zoologica special collections university of amsterdam ubainv0274 045 10 0036. Melipona beecheii is a species of eusocial, stingless bees of the order hymenoptera and the genus melipona. In this article, rachel james, livelihoods programme officer at the travel foundation, explains the background to the project, the key objectives, activities, lessons learnt and. The melipona beecheii bee came into the world in the native lands of the mayans where it has survived for centuries. Our results are consonant with earlier observations in melipona rufiventris 12 f st 0. The entomological origin of the honey was known for 17 species of meliponini from brazil, one from costa rica, six. Meliponines have stingers, but they are highly reduced and. Queens and workers in colonies of melipona beecheii in yucatan, mexico, had the same dry mass, showing that queen development is not. Melipona bicolor lepeletier, 1836, commonly known as guaraipo or guarupu, is a eusocial bee found primarily in south america.
This information is of greatest importance for the reforestation. Hygienic behavior in the stingless bees melipona beecheii. It is native to central america from the yucatan peninsula in the north to costa rica in the south. I dont believe this but cant find a study on the topic either way. They belong in the family apidae, and are closely related to common honey bees, carpenter bees, orchid bees, and bumblebees. The objective is to project some tendecies in research about nutraceutical aspects related to the bioactive compounds presents in the honey of this stingless bee species, known for its medicinal properties traditional, in the yucatan peninsula.
Flavonoids and other phenolic derivatives, 16 compounds in apis mellifera honeys and 19 compounds in melipona beecheii honeys, were identified using the hplcdadesimsms. Floral preference of the bee melipona beecheii strongly depends on the composition of the vegetation, which is geographically very variable. The stingless bee genus melipona contains at least 50 species of mediumsized 815 mm, robust, and often hirsute bees inhabiting forests of tropical america, from mexico to argentina schwarz, 1932, michener, 2007. Tree selection by the stingless bee melipona beecheii.
This honey is known for being less dense than that obtained from honeybees in the genus apis, as its humidity levels are higher. Medicinal uses of melipona beecheii honey, by the ancient. Also, please honor the s of articles and photos we have received permission to use. Nest and colony characteristics of loghived melipona beecheii. Several polifloral honeys from the apis mellifera and melipona beecheii bee were analyzed to evaluate their pollen profile, physicochemical parameters, chemical composition and their antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. Such high differentiation might reflect partial isolation. Melipona bee honey is a thick, sweetsour liquid obtained from stingless bees of the genus melipona. Pdf extinction of melipona beecheii and traditional.
546 172 1290 567 1200 1101 1556 169 1050 183 615 1467 1020 934 850 368 1359 998 38 663 1009 1559 1053 846 890 430 325 830 828 317 863 1289 807 944