Vulture bee
Vulture bees are a small group of three closely related North American stingless bee species in the genus Trigona which feed on rotting meat. They substitute meat for pollen, but still make honey from nectar. This unusual behavior was only discovered in 1982, nearly two centuries after the bees were first classified.
| Vulture bee | |
|---|---|
Scientific classification  | |
| Kingdom: | Animalia |
| Phylum: | Arthropoda |
| Class: | Insecta |
| Order: | Hymenoptera |
| Family: | Apidae |
| Genus: | Trigona |
| Subgenus: | Trigona (Trigona) |
| Species | |
|
three species; see text | |
Taxonomy
The three species in this group are:
- Trigona crassipes (Fabricius, 1793)
- Trigona necrophaga (Camargo & Roubik, 1991)
- Trigona hypogea (Silvestri, 1902)
Ecology and behaviour
Vulture bees, much like maggots, usually enter the carcass through the eyes. They will then root around inside gathering the meat suitable for their needs. The vulture bee salivates on the rotting flesh and then consumes it, storing the flesh in its special stomach compartment. When it returns to the hive, this meat is vomited and processed by a worker bee, which breaks the meat down into an edible substance resembling honey. This substance is then placed into pot-like containers within the hive until it is time to feed the immature bees.
References
- Roubik, D.W. (1982). "Obligate Necrophagy in a Social Bee". Science 217 (4564): 1059–60.
- Camargo, J.M.F. & Roubik, D.W. (1991). (link broken)"Systematics and bionomics of the apoid obligate necrophages: the Trigona hypogea group". Biological Journal of the Linnean Society 44 (1): 13–39.