Melipona quadrifasciata

Melipona quadrifasciata is a species of eusocial, stingless bee of the order Hymenoptera. It is native to the southeastern coastal states of Brazil where it is more commonly known as Mandaçaia, which means 'beautiful guard,' as there is always a bee at the narrow entrance of the nest. M. quadrifasciata constructs mud hives in the hollows of trees to create thin passages that only allow one bee to pass at a time. Because they are stingless bees, M. quadrifasciata is often used as pollinators in greenhouses, outperforming honey bees in efficiency and leading to overall larger yields of fruits that were heavier, larger, and contained more seeds. Melipona quadrifasciata is a member of the family Apidae and the order Hymenoptera. M. quadrifasciata is in the subfamily Meliponini which is commonly referred to as “stingless bees”. The genus Melipona includes nearly 50 other species. M. quadrifasciata can be categorized into two subspecies: M. quadrifasciata quadrifasciata which occupies the northern range of the species and M. quadrifasciata anthidioides which are more often found in the southern range. However, there is a large hybrid area where the subspecies overlap. Melipona quadrifasciata have dark black, rounded bodies with slightly curved antennae and translucent wings. Size is from 10 to 11 mm, and they are more heavily build than the common honeybee. This bee can be identified by the bright yellow stripe pattern from the third to the sixth abdominal tergites. Melipona that produce workers, males, and potential queens are indistinguishable and intermixed, making caste differentiation both environmentally and genetically determined. The abdomens of M. quadrifasaciata queens swell with ovarian development, making older queens larger than workers which is typical of most social bees. Queens vary slightly in their coloring, having brown eyes and brown hair compared to the black eyes and hair of worker bees. Workers are smaller than the queen. Workers have black eyes and black hair on their thorax and abdomen. Older workers will go out foraging while younger workers, 12–21 days old, will construct and provision cells in the comb. Melipona quadrifasciata is one of the most common Melipona species in southeastern coastal Brazil, found from the states of Pernambuco to Rio Grande do Sul. This species shows considerable variety in nesting sites and has been recorded nesting in tree trunks from 1 to 3 meters above the soil surface, in the soil in nests of Atta, and in the abandoned mud bird nests constructed on telephone poles. Nests are commonly found in tree holes and incorporate clay. The opening of the nests allow for only one bee to pass through at a time. Stingless bees, such as M. quadrifasciata, are highly eusocial bees that are characterized by having perennial colonies that are typically headed by a single-mated queen. The average number of adult workers and queens within a colony is 300-400. There has been a novel case of temporal polygyny within a colony of M. quadrifasciata, where eight egg-laying queens were found to be coexisting in a single colony. New colonies are established in a slow process, when the number of worker bees exceed 500 or 600 individuals in the parent colony. Then, a number of worker bees starts to build a new nest in a tree cavity found to be well suited for this purpose, and store honey and pollen in there. When the new nest is ready, a 'princess bee' (mated gyne) join the workers, and if accepted it starts laying eggs and becomes the new queen. As in other Melipona bees, after a while the abdomen of the new queen expands to 3 or more times the initial size (a phenom called Physogastrism) and it becomes incapable of flying, never leaving the nest again.