Insects · Hymenoptera · Apidae

Mayan Melipona

Melipona beecheii

Not Evaluated

It has not yet been assessed against the IUCN criteria. See full glossary

The Mayan melipona — known in Spanish as jicote manso, jicota estrella, cuco real, criolla, mosca de la virgen or simply abeja sin aguijón — is a hymenopteran insect of the family Apidae and one of the seventy-three species of the genus Melipona. It is a eusocial stingless bee. They are not aggressive in behaviour, they do not moult and their hive is permanent, with colonies ranging from dozens to thousands of members. This species is distributed across the northern Neotropics, from the Mexican Pacific coast, the Petén in Guatemala and the Greater Antilles in Cuba as far as the Gulf of Nicoya.

Size

8 cm – 12 cm

Diet

Herbivore

Feeds mainly on plants.

Activity

Diurnal

Active mainly during the day.

Social structure

Colony

Lives in large concentrations, often for breeding reasons.

Sighting difficulty

Unknown

RainforestHerbivore Diurnal Colonial Insect Rainforest

8countries 39parks5same family

Fun facts

GeneralThe Maya kept it for centuries for its medicinal honey; it cannot sting.
The Maya kept it in hollow logs sealed at both ends, called jobones, and named it Xunan kab, the lady bee; their meliponiculture is one of the oldest beekeeping traditions in the Americas.
Its sting is vestigial and it cannot sting: it defends itself by biting and by tangling itself in the intruder's hair.
Its honey, runnier and more acidic than that of the European honeybee, is traditionally used as a remedy for eye and throat complaints.
The Maya domesticated it more than 3,000 years ago: they call it xunan kab, lady bee, and it appears in the Madrid Codex alongside the bee god Ah Mucen Kab.
It has no sting, but it bites when it feels threatened, and coordinates the collective attack with pheromones from its mandibular glands.
Maya beekeepers in Quintana Roo report a 93 % fall in the number of hives over the last quarter-century, from deforestation, hurricanes, pesticides and competition from the European honey bee.
Queen, workers and drones are roughly the same size, which is unusual in social bees.