Trigona spinipes is a species of stingless bee

Stingless bee

Stingless bees, sometimes called stingless honey bees or simply meliponines, are a large group of bees, comprising the tribe Meliponini . They belong in the family Apidae, and are closely related to common honey bees, carpenter bees, orchid bees and bumblebees...

. It occurs in Brazil

Brazil

Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

, where it is called arapuá, irapuá or abelha-cachorro ("dog-bee"). The species name means "spiny feet" in Latin

Latin

Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...

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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 bee

Carpenter bee

Carpenter bees are large, hairy bees distributed worldwide. There are some 500 species of carpenter bee in 31 subgenera...

s, Africanized honeybees and other
stingless bees) for the same purpose, killing or driving them away and taking over their food source.

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). On the other hand, they are significant pollinators on their own, e.g. for onion

Onion

The onion , also known as the bulb onion, common onion and garden onion, is the most widely cultivated species of the genus Allium. The genus Allium also contains a number of other species variously referred to as onions and cultivated for food, such as the Japanese bunching onion The onion...

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