Melipona

Out of over 500 species of tropical stingless bees, the Maya have always favored Melipona beecheii, which they call kolil kab, meaning "royal lady."

Honey: A sweet Maya legacy 2009

Out of over 500 species of tropical stingless bees, the Maya have always favored Melipona beecheii, which they call kolil kab, meaning "royal lady."

Honey: A sweet Maya legacy 2009

The bees native to the New World, species of the genera Melipona and Trigona, are exclusively tropical.

On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Harold McGee 2004

The bees native to the New World, species of the genera Melipona and Trigona, are exclusively tropical.

On Food and Cooking, The Science and Lore of the Kitchen Harold McGee 2004

What should induce the _Melipona_ to accumulate stores which they could not preserve?

Scientific American Supplement, No. 514, November 7, 1885 Various

It is well known that never more than a very small store of honey is found in felled trees inhabited by stingless _Melipona_.

Scientific American Supplement, No. 514, November 7, 1885 Various

Stempell (1908, p. 735) this is doubtless a species of _Melipona_, probably _M. fulvipes_ or _domestica_.

Animal Figures in the Maya Codices 1915

Again, from the same cause, it would be advantageous to the Melipona, if she were to make her cells closer together, and more regular in every way than at present; for then, as we have seen, the spherical surfaces would wholly disappear and be replaced by plane surfaces; and the Melipona would make a comb as perfect as that of the hive-bee.

VIII. Instinct. Special Instincts 1909

Hence we may safely conclude that, if we could slightly modify the instincts already possessed by the Melipona, and in themselves not very wonderful, this bee would make a structure as wonderfully perfect as that of the hive-bee.

VIII. Instinct. Special Instincts 1909

Reflecting on this case, it occurred to me that if the Melipona had made its spheres at some given distance from each other, and had made them of equal sizes and had arranged them symmetrically in a double layer, the resulting structure would have been as perfect as the comb of the hive-bee.

VIII. Instinct. Special Instincts 1909