Stingless bees

Temporal range: Cretaceous-Present

PreЄ

Pg

N
 Meliponula ferruginea

Scientific classification

Kingdom: Animalia

Clade: Euarthropoda

Class: Insecta

Order: Hymenoptera

Family: Apidae

Subfamily: Apinae

Tribe: Meliponini
Lepeletier, 1836

Genera

Austroplebeia
Cephalotrigona
Cleptotrigona
†Cretotrigona
Dactylurina
†Exebotrigona
Frieseomelitta
Geniotrigona
Heterotrigona
Homotrigona
Hypotrigona
†Kelneriapis
Lepidotrigona
Lestrimelitta
Leurotrigona
Liotrigona
†Liotrigonopsis
Lisotrigona
Meliplebeia
Melipona
†Meliponorytes
Meliponula
Meliwillea
Nannotrigona
Nogueirapis
Oxytrigona
Papuatrigona
Paratrigona
Pariotrigona
Paratrigonoides
Partamona
Plebeia
Plebeina
†Proplebeia
Scaptotrigona
Tetragonisca
Tetragonula
Trichotrigona
Trigona
Trigonisca
Wallacetrigona
Collecting nectar from mustard flower (Photographed from Areacode, Kerala, India)

Stingless bees, sometimes called stingless honey bees or simply meliponines, are a large group
of bees (about 500 species), comprising the tribe Meliponini[1] (or subtribe Meliponina according to
other authors[2]). They belong in the family Apidae, and are closely related to common honey
bees, carpenter bees, orchid bees, and bumblebees.[3] Meliponines have stingers, but they are highly
reduced and cannot be used for defense, though these bees exhibit other defensive behaviors and
mechanisms. Meliponines are not the only type of "stingless" bee; all male bees and many female
bees of several other families, such as Andrenidae, also cannot sting