#stingless bee

@clarisse-owo submitted: these are some cute brazilian native bees. they are known in some places by building their colonies in not so optimal places like inside walls, and in this case, near my house's power supply cables.

that in the background is a "trap" my dad made so that we could try to move them if they end up finding the trap cozy enough to move in.

I don't remember the species's name, but i love them.

Stingless Bees (Melipona beecheii), family Apidae, Yucatan, Mexico

Vulture bees, a.k.a carrion bees a.k.a meat-eating bees, are stingless bees that feed on rotting meat of deceased animals. They have a special tooth used to rip the flesh off the corpse of the animal. Instead of regular honey produced from nectar, they produce “meat honey” which is a honey-like substance made from protein-rich secretions derived from the bees' diet, carrion. Vulture bees, like maggots, usually enter the carcass through the eye and then root around, consuming the rotting meat to take back to the hive. This meat is then regurgitated and turn into the substance that will be use to feed the hives’s immature bees (babees, haha, geddit?). The flavor of this “meat honey” is described as intense, smokey, and salty, or uniquely sweet.

• extra info 1 • extra info 2

There are three types of social bees:

bumblebees—large and fluffy; they nest in shallow holes or in the thick grass. These bees don’t communicate, so they learn by trial and error.

honey bees—nest in trees and make wax combs in which honey can be produced and broods raised. They use signals to communicate.

stingless bees—have a stinger but rarely use it. They nest in trees or between rocks, storing their honey in beeswax. Some communicate by sound vibrations.