During winter break, some adventurous students at the University of Maryland participated in a course that took them on a remarkable adventure to the rainforest in Belize to study Mayan culture and the fascinating creatures and plants in tropical ecosystems. By some strange coincidence, Bug of the Week happened to stow away on this tropical odyssey. While climbing a pyramid in Cahal Pech, a Mayan ruin near the present day town of San Ignacio, we found a roofless room filled with hundreds of swarming bees. This sight was enough to send most of our expedition scurrying for cover, but on closer inspection, we discovered that we had stumbled across a nesting site of one of the rainforest's most interesting social insects, stingless bees. Stingless bees are close relatives of more commonly known species of stinging bees including bumblebees and honeybees. Some species were cultured by Mayan beekeepers for honey. Unfortunately, this tradition is vanishing. Many species of stingless bees live in subterranean colonies ranging in size from a few hundred to more than 80,000 workers. Trumpet-shaped entrances to several subterranean nests protruded from a masonry wall in the ruins. Entrances were roughly the size of silver dollars and constructed of a sticky substance called propolis, a mixture of wax and other materials repellent to ants that would love to raid the hive and plunder honey, pollen, and baby bees stored within. The nest entrance was also guarded by several workers that watched carefully, but didn't seem to mind our nosey intrusion. Behind the wall of the ancient room, a gallery led to the heart of the nest, an expanded chamber filled with cells containing honey, pollen, and developing larvae and pupae. Here, too, is where the queen busily fills brood cells with eggs. The life of a worker bee is a predestined regimen of tasks that change as the bee ages. For the first several days of life, worker bees are craftsman shaping and forming the basic building materials of the colony, wax and a wax-like material called cerumen. After a week or so and for several weeks thereafter, workers stock cells with food and have the heady assignment of feeding the queen. About this time they also begin to produce wax to build the many structures of the nest. Soon workers enter guard duty at the nest entrance. Shortly thereafter, they take on the assignment of collecting nectar and pollen for the hive. Worker bees were common visitors to many kinds of flowering plants in the Belizean jungle. When captured and rolled gently between two fingers, they emitted a pleasant floral odor. If these bees lack effective stingers, how do they defend themselves and their colony? In his book, The Insect Societies, E.O. Wilson describes accounts of stingless bees attacking human intruders. They swarm over the body pulling hair and biting skin. Some species eject an irritating liquid that can burn the skin. This trick has earned them the local name of cagafogos or "fire defecators". This defense may be potent enough to dissuade very aggressive attackers like the army ants we met in February 5, 2007 bug of the week, An army of one - million Army ants, Eciton sp.. Whew, I guess we were lucky that the stingless bees we encountered at Cahal Pech had more important business on their minds during our brief and pleasant visit.

The fascinating book "The Insect Societies" by E.O. Wilson was used as a reference for this Bug of the Week.

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