They’re Bees, But They Don’t Sting

I was not too worried about getting close to these stingless bees to take the video that you see here.  I found out after I got pretty close that although they don’t sting, they can bite.  If you get too close to their nest, some species of stingless bees fly into your hair and get tangled and bite your scalp.  I was lucky this time and from now on, I will give them a little more distance.

They choose old, hollow logs and their nests are easy to spot because of the white “front entrance” that they build.  The bees that you see hovering around the “front entrance” in this video are the guards and are called angelistas.  Guards, workers, and the queen are all females.  Like other bees, stingless bees are social insects, meaning that they live in colonies and each bee in the colony has a special job to do (division of labor).  The workers leave the nest (you can see them leaving in the video) to collect pollen and nectar.  They may also collect oils and waxes from plants and hair from animal burrows to use in their nest construction.  When the workers return to the nest, they communicate with other workers about the location of the food supply.  Bees are important pollinators for plants.

Thanks to Meghan Duell, an entomologist studying stingless bees in Panama, for her helpful input for this blog entry. 

- Fran Zakutansky