stingless bee

noun

1. any of certain social, honey-producing tropical bees of the family Apidae, as of the genus Melipona, having a nonfunctional stinger.

Word History and Origins

Origin of stingless bee¹

First recorded in 1855–60

Example Sentences

A crucial global project is Slow Food’s Ark of Taste, a living collection of small-scale, culturally significant, often-endangered foods that documents regional produce, grains, livestock, wild plants, insects and even sweeteners and seasonings, such as Chaco stingless bee honey from Bolivia and Malaysia’s Rimbàs black pepper.

From Salon

The Amazon is home to hundreds of species of stingless bee, but as deforestation converts the tropical landscape into farms and ranches, these and other native pollinators are in danger of disappearing.

From New York Times

Pesticides, climate change and competition with the honey bee, which is better adapted to agricultural areas than the stingless bee, introduces more strain.

From New York Times

They have strict hierarchies like any other apian species, but stingless bee castes are determined by how much pollen an individual consumes.

From National Geographic

"What we're looking at is the advancing front of a stingless bee colony," Heard says.

From National Geographic