What is 'Kelulut' - Trigona Bees

Stingless bees of the species Trigona spinipes (Fabricius 1793) use their saliva to lay scent trails communicating the location of profitable food sources. Extracts of the cephalic labial glands of the salivary system (not the mandibular glands, however) contain a large amount (approx. 74%) of octyl octanoate. This ester is also found on the scent-marked substrates at the feeding site. We demonstrate octyl octanoate to be a single compound pheromone which induces full trail following behaviour. The identification of the trail pheromone in this widely distributed bee makes it an ideal organism for studying the mechanism of trail following in a day flying insect.

Trigona is the largest genus of stingless bees, formerly including many more subgenera than the present assemblage; many of these former subgenera have been elevated to generic status.^[1] There are approximately 150 species presently included in the genus, in 11 subgenera. They differ from those groups now excluded in only minor structural details, primarily of the hind leg.

Stingless bees can be found in most tropical or subtropical regions of the world, such as Australia, Africa, Southeast Asia, and tropical America.^[1][2] The majority of native eusocial bees of Central and South America are stingless bees, although only a few of them produce honey on a scale such that they are farmed by humans.^[4][5] They are also quite diverse in Africa, includingMadagascar,^[6] and are farmed there also; meliponine honey is prized as a medicine in many African communities as well as in South America.^[7]

Being tropical, stingless bees are active all year round, although they are less active in cooler weather, with some species presenting diapause.^[8][9] Unlike other eusocial bees, they do not sting but will defend by biting if their nest is disturbed. In addition, a few (in the genus Oxytrigona) have mandibular secretions that cause painful blisters. Despite their lack of a sting, stingless bees, being eusocial, may have very large colonies made formidable by the number of defenders.^[10]

Hives[edit]

Stingless bees usually nest in hollow trunks, tree branches, underground cavities, or rock crevices but they have also been encountered in wall cavities, old rubbish bins, water meters, and storage drums. Many beekeepers keep the bees in their original loghive or transfer them to a wooden box, as this makes it easier to control the hive.^[1

The bees store pollen and honey in large egg-shaped pots made of beeswax, typically mixed with various types of plant resin (sometimes called "propolis"). These pots are often arranged around a central set of horizontal brood combs, where the larval bees are housed. When the young worker bees emerge from their cells, they tend to remain inside the hive, performing different jobs. As workers age, they become guards or foragers. Unlike the larvae of honey bees, meliponine larvae are not fed directly. The pollen and nectar are placed in a cell, an egg is laid, and the cell is sealed until the adult bee emerges after pupation ("mass provisioning"). At any one time, hives can contain 300–80,000 workers, depending on species.

Stingless bees store their aromatic honey in clusters of small resin pots near the extremities of the nest. For honey production, the bees need to be kept in a box specially designed to make the honey stores accessible without damaging the rest of the nest structure. Some recent box designs for honey production provide a separate compartment for the honey stores so that honey pots can be removed without spilling honey into other areas of the nest.

Unlike a hive of commercial honeybees, which can produce 75 kilograms of honey a year, a hive of Australian stingless bees produces less than one kilogram. Stingless bee honey has a distinctive "bush" taste—a mix of sweet and sour with a hint of fruit. The taste comes from plant resins—which the bees use to build their hives and honey pots—and varies at different times of year depending on the flowers and trees visited.