Lestrimelitta

Lestrimelitta
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Hymenoptera
Family:	Apidae
Tribe:	Meliponini
Genus:	Lestrimelitta; Friese, 1903
Species
	24 spp.

Lestrimelitta is a genus of stingless bees found in the Neotropics, from Mexico to Brazil and Argentina, with about 20 known species.^[1] They are small, shining black species from 4 to 7 mm in length, with rounded heads and reduced pollen baskets. Unlike most eusocial bees, they do not gather their own pollen and nectar from flowers, thus are not pollinators, but instead they invade the colonies of other stingless bee species and rob their pollen and honey stores (a phenomenon called "cleptobiosis").^[1] They do not initiate their own nests, but they will "evict" another stingless bee colony from its nest (usually in a tree cavity), and convert the pre-existing nest to house their own colony.

Selected taxa[]

(Gonzalez and Griswold, 2012)
(Roig-Alsina, 2010)
(Ayala, 1999)
(Marchi and Melo, 2006)
(Oliveira and Marchi, 2005)
(Friese, 1931)
(Oliveira and Marchi, 2005)
(Camargo and Moure, 1990)
(Roubik, 1980)
(Gonzalez and Griswold, 2012)
Lestrimelitta limao (Smith, 1863) –irati
(Marchi and Melo, 2006)
( Camargo and Moure, 1990)
(Oliveira and Marchi, 2005)
(Melo, 2003)
(Ayala, 1999)
(Gonzalez and Griswold, 2012)
(Friese, 1903)
(Friese, 1903)
(Marchi and Melo, 2006)
( Marchi and Melo, 2006)
( Marchi and Melo, 2006)
( Marchi and Melo, 2006)

References[]

^ ^a ^b Grüter, Christoph (2020). Stingless Bees: Their Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution. Springer New York. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-60090-7. ISBN 978-3-030-60089-1.

C. D. Michener (2000) The Bees of the World, Johns Hopkins University Press.
J. S. Ascher, J. Pickering, (2012) Discover Life's bee species guide and world checklist

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[:0-1] Grüter, Christoph (2020). Stingless Bees: Their Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution. Springer New York. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-60090-7. ISBN 978-3-030-60089-1.

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