melipona

Charis melipona, a South American Longicorn of the family Necydalidæ, has been so named from its resemblance to a small bee of the genus

Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection A Series of Essays Alfred Russel Wallace 1868

The melipona bees are the most numerous of the honey-producing insects, their colonies being composed of vast numbers of individuals.

The Western World Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North and South America William Henry Giles Kingston 1847

The two halves are then secured together, by binding round them spirally long fiat strips of the jacitira, or wood of the climbing palm-tree, the whole being afterwards smeared over with the black wax of the melipona bee.

The Western World Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North and South America William Henry Giles Kingston 1847

Thus the melipona bees are masons as well as workers in wax and pollen gatherers.

The Western World Picturesque Sketches of Nature and Natural History in North and South America William Henry Giles Kingston 1847