Plebeia

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Plebeia
Plebeia pulchra.jpg
Plebeia pulchra
Scientific classification Red Pencil Icon.png
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Arthropoda
Class: Insecta
Order: Hymenoptera
Family: Apidae
Tribe: Meliponini
Genus: Plebeia
Schwarz, 1938
Species

~45 species; see text

Plebeia is a genus of mostly small-bodied stingless bees, formerly included in the genus Trigona . Most of the ~45 species are placed in the subgenus (Plebeia) (s.s.), but there also are four species in the subgenus (Scaura). They differ in only minor structural details, primarily of the hind leg, from other genera that were formerly treated as constituents of Trigona. In some classifications, the genus Schwarziana is treated as a subgenus within Plebeia, but recent morphological analyses indicate that Schwarziana is a distinct lineage, while Plebeia is paraphyletic. [1]

Contents

Due to their small sizes, in Brazil many species are known as abelha-mirim (literally "small bee") in Portuguese.

Range

Species of the genus Plebeia occur from Mexico to Argentina.

A few feral colonies of P. emerina exist in the United States, the result of experimental imports in the 1950s. [2] [3]

List of species

[4] [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carpenter bee</span> Common name for a genus of bees

Carpenter bees are species in the genus Xylocopa of the subfamily Xylocopinae. The genus includes some 500 bees in 31 subgenera. The common name "carpenter bee" derives from their nesting behavior; nearly all species burrow into hard plant material such as dead wood or bamboo. The main exceptions are species in the subgenus Proxylocopa; they dig nesting tunnels in suitable soil.

<i>Schwarziana</i> Genus of bees

Schwarziana is a relatively small genus of South American stingless bees. Like other stingless bees, Schwarziana are eusocial, with large colonies primarily composed of workers and one queen. Unusually for stingless bees, colonies are formed in underground chambers rather than in tree cavities. Workers are approximately 6.5mm long

<i>Ceratina</i> Genus of bees

The cosmopolitan bee genus Ceratina, often referred to as small carpenter bees, is the sole lineage of the tribe Ceratinini, and is not closely related to the more familiar carpenter bees. The genus presently contains over 300 species in 23 subgenera. They make nests in dead wood, stems, or pith, and while many are solitary, a number are subsocial, with mothers caring for their larvae, and in a few cases where multiple females are found in a single nest, daughters or sisters may form very small, weakly eusocial colonies. One species is unique for having both social and asocial populations, Ceratina australensis, which exhibits all of the pre-adaptations for successful group living. This species is socially polymorphic with both solitary and social nests collected in sympatry. Social colonies in that species consist of two foundresses, one contributing both foraging and reproductive effort and the second which remains at the nest as a passive guard. Cooperative nesting provides no overt reproductive benefits over solitary nesting in this population, although brood survival tends to be greater in social colonies. Maternal longevity, subsociality and bivoltine nesting phenology in this species favour colony formation, while dispersal habits and offspring longevity may inhibit more frequent social nesting in this and other ceratinines.

<i>Melipona</i> Genus of bees

Melipona is a genus of stingless bees, widespread in warm areas of the Neotropics, from Sinaloa and Tamaulipas (México) to Tucumán and Misiones (Argentina). About 70 species are known. The largest producer of honey from Melipona bees in Mexico is in the state of Yucatán where bees are studied at an interactive park called "Bee Planet" which is within the Cuxtal Ecological Reserve.

<i>Eufriesea</i> Genus of bees

Eufriesea is a genus of euglossine bees. Like all orchid bees, they are restricted to the Neotropics.

<i>Leioproctus</i> Genus of bees

Leioproctus is a genus in the plaster bee family Colletidae. Its members are primarily found in Australasia and temperate South America, and include the most common native bees in New Zealand.

<i>Lestrimelitta</i> Genus of bees

Lestrimelitta is a genus of stingless bees found in the Neotropics, from Mexico to Brazil and Argentina, with about 20 known species. 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. They do not initiate their own nests, but they will "evict" another stingless bee colony from its nest, and convert the pre-existing nest to house their own colony.

<i>Tetragonula</i> Genus of bees

Tetragonula is a genus of stingless bees. In 1961, Brazilian bee expert J.S. Moure first proposed the genus name Tetragonula to improve the classification system by dividing the large genus Trigona stingless bees into 9 smaller groups. About 30 stingless bee species formerly placed in the genus Trigona are now placed in the genus Tetragonula. These bees are found in Oceania, in countries such as Australia, Indonesia, New Guinea, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, and the Solomon Islands. The most recent tabulation of species listed 31 species.

<i>Caupolicana</i> Genus of bees

Caupolicana is a genus of bees in the family Colletidae, native to the Americas; most species are crepuscular in habit, visiting flowers only at dawn and/or dusk. There are over 50 known species, in 4 subgenera.

<i>Epeolus</i> Genus of bees

Epeolus is a genus of cuckoo bees of the tribe Epeolini, the subfamily Nomadinae part of the honey bee family Apidae. They are often known as variegated cuckoo-bees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Protandrenini</span> Tribe of bees

Protandrenini is a tribe of mining bees in the family Andrenidae. There are at least 12 genera and at least 380 described species in Protandrenini.

<i>Austroplebeia</i> Genus of insects

Austroplebeia is a stingless bee (Meliponini) genus in the family Apidae. The genus was erected by Jesus Santiago Moure in 1961. The genus comprises five described species endemic to Australia and New Guinea.Austroplebeia are more closed related to the African stingless bees than rest of the species found in Asia and Australia.

<i>Partamona</i> Genus of bees

Partamona is a genus of Meliponini in appended hymenoptera of the Apidae family. Herbert Ferlando Schwarz in 1938 described the genus. The genus is found in Sonora, Chihuahua, San Luis Potosí, in Mexico, Mato Grosso in Brazil, and eastern Peru.

Anthodioctes is a genus of bee in the family Megachilidae.

Scaptotrigona is a genus of bees belonging to the family Apidae.

Trigonisca is a genus of bees belonging to the family Apidae.

Paratrigona is a genus of bees belonging to the family Apidae.

Nogueirapis is a genus of bees belonging to the family Apidae.

Neocorynura is a genus of bees belonging to the family Apidae.

Geotrigona is a genus of bees belonging to the family Apidae.

References

  1. Melo, Gabriel A.R. (October 2015). "New species of the stingless bee genus Schwarziana (Hymenoptera, Apidae)". Revista Brasileira de Entomologia. 59 (4): 290–293. doi: 10.1016/j.rbe.2015.08.001 .
  2. Agarwal, Robin (3 June 2021). "New Colony of Rare Bees Found By a Four-Year-Old". Bay Nature. Retrieved 29 August 2021.
  3. Davies, Erica. "4-year-old girl discovers rare stingless bees in California". Yahoo News.
  4. "ITIS Standard Report Page: Plebeia". www.itis.gov. Retrieved 2015-11-06.
  5. Grüter, Christoph (2020). Stingless Bees: Their Behaviour, Ecology and Evolution . Fascinating Life Sciences. Springer New York. doi:10.1007/978-3-030-60090-7. ISBN   978-3-030-60089-1. S2CID   227250633.