Mexico's Endangered Stingless Bees Mysteriously Find A Sweeter Home In Cuba
Mexico's Endangered Stingless Bees Mysteriously Find A Sweeter Home In Cuba
November 14, 20184:07 PM ET
SADIE WITKOWSKI
A stingless Mayan bee (Melipona beecheii) gorges itself with honey during the harvest in Yucatan, Mexico.
Eric Tou/Visuals Unlimited via Getty Images
A rare, stingless bee cultivated by the Maya more than 3,000 years ago may be going extinct in its natural Yucatan Peninsula habitat in Mexico, but a mysterious relocation to Cuba may save its future.
A combination of hurricanes, pesticides and logging is leading to the decline of these unique bees, called Melipona beecheii.
Melipona nest in odd-looking log hives in large, hollowed-out trees. When the hives are removed from the trees for cultivation, they are called jobones. The bees have small colonies and don't form honeycombs.
"They don't have frames or vertical comb," says evolutionary ecologist David Roubik the "bee man" of the Smithsonian Institution. Instead, "They have storage pots that are squished and left to drain into some basin." Although the bees do not sting, they will bite to protect their hives.
More:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/11/14/661814847/mexicos-endangered-stingless-bees-mysteriously-find-a-sweeter-home-in-cuba?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news
Science:
https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2018/11/14/661814847/mexicos-endangered-stingless-bees-mysteriously-find-a-sweeter-home-in-cuba?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=news
