Trigona spinipes

Trigona spinipes
Scientific classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Apidae
Genus: Trigona
Species: T. spinipes
Binomial name
Trigona spinipes
(Fabricius, 1793)

Trigona spinipes is a species of stingless bee. It occurs in Brazil, where it is called arapuá, irapuá or abelha-cachorro ("dog-bee"). The species name means "spiny feet" in Latin.

Nest of Trigona spinipes, a couple of months old. The cinder blocks are about 40 cm wide and 19 cm tall. The greenish part is the most recent addition. The light spots on the nest are individual bees.

Habits

Trigona spinipes builds its nest on trees (or on buildings and other human structures), out of mud, resin, wax, and assorted debris, including dung. Therefore, its honey is not fit for consumption, even though it is reputed to be of good quality by itself, and is used in folk medicine. Colonies may have from 5000 to over 100 000 workers.

T. spinipes will attack in swarms when they feel the nest is threatened. They cannot sting, and their bite is not very effective. Their main weapon against predatory animals (including people) is to get themselves entangled in the victim's hair and buzz loudly. They will also aggressively penetrate human bodily openings such as nasal and auditory orifices when in attack mode.

T. spinipes uses odor trails, sometimes extending to several hundred metres, in order to lead nestmates from the hive to a food source. Moreover, it can "eavesdrop" on the chemical signals used by other bee species (such as carpenter bees, Africanized honeybees and other stingless bees) for the same purpose, killing or driving them away and taking over their food source.[1]

The bee has been considered an agricultural pest for some crops, such as passion fruit, because it damages leaves and flowers while collecting nest materials, and tunnels through the unopened flowers to collect the nectar (thus frustrating their normal pollinators).[2] On the other hand, they are significant pollinators on their own, e.g. for onions.[3]

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Trigona spinipes.
  1. ↑ James C. Nieh, Lillian S. Barreto, Felipe A. L. Contrera, and Vera L. Imperatriz-Fonseca (2004), Olfactory eavesdropping by a competitively foraging stingless bee, Trigona spinipes. Proc. Royal Society of London, series B, volume 271, pages 1633–1640 1633 doi:10.1098/rspb.2004.2717
  2. ↑ Arlindo L. Boiça Jr., Terezinha M. dos Santos, and Jairo Passilongo (2004), Trigona spinipes (Fabr.) (Hymenoptera: Apidae) em Espécies de Maracujazeiro: Flutuação Populacional, Horário de Visitação e Danos às Flores. Neotropical Entomology volume 33 issue 2, pages 135-139 (in Portuguese)
  3. ↑ Maria C. A. Lorenzon, Ângelo R. Rodrigues, and João R. G.C. de Souza (1993), Comportamento polinizador de Trigona spinipes (Hymeotpera: Apidae) na florada da cebola (Allium cepa L.) híbrida. Pesquisa Agropecuária Brasileira, vol. 28, issue 2, pages 217--221. (in Portuguese).