APIDAE ›› Apinae ›› Meliponini ›› Plebeia

Plebeia frontalis (Friese, 1911)
Common Name: "mimí"
Trigona frontalis Friese, H. (1911). Neue Bienen aus Süd-Amerika (Hym.). Dtsch. Entomol. Z. IV: 453-456 [455] .
Type data: syntype ZMB <F> workers (6) (Roubik, 1992:511, mentioned "paratypes" from Honduras in USNM. See also Cockerell, 1917: 126) , syntype USNM <F> workers (2) , syntype ZSM <F> workers (2).
Type locality: Honduras, 1900 leg. [sic]; Honduras.

Distribution

Nearctic Region: Mexico (Campeche, Chiapas, Colima, Guerrero, Hidalgo, Jalisco, Michoacán de Ocampo, Nayarit, Nuevo León, Oaxaca, Puebla, Quintana Roo, San Luis Potosí, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas, Veracruz-Llave, Yucatán); Neotropical Region: Colombia, Costa Rica (Alajuela, Cartago, Guanacaste, Heredia, Limón, Puntarenas, San José), Guatemala (Suchitepéquez), Honduras (Francisco Morazán), Nicaragua (Chinandega), Panama (Coclé), Panama Canal Zone

References

Aguilar, I. & Sommeijer, M. (2001). The deposition of anal excretions by Melipona favosa foragers (Apidae: Meliponinae): behavioral observations concerning the location of food sources. Apidologie 32: 37-48 [44] (excretion, metabolic water)
Ayala, R. (1988). Abejas silvestres (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) de Chamela, Jalisco, México. Folia Entomológica Mexicana 77: 395-493 [406, 448] (list, key)
Ayala, R. (1999). Revision de las abejas sin aguijon de Mexico (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini). Folia Entomológica Mexicana 106: 1-123 [7, 16, 60, 61, 62-63, 66, 67, 68, 78, 81, 85, 115] (as Plebeia (Plebeia) frontalis, list, key, synonymy, figure: male genitalia, diagnosis, geographic records, flower records: Himenocallis glauca, Tigridia dalgessii, Astrocaryum mexicanus, Bidens sp., Viguiera dentata, comparative notes, geographic range)
Biesmeijer, J. C. & Slaa, E. J. (2004). Information flow and organization of stingless bee foraging. Apidologie 35: 143-157 [148] (non-aggressive foraging behavior, citation)
Breed, M. D., McGlynn, T. P., Sanctuary, M. D., Stocker, E. M. & Cruz, R. (1999). Distribution and abundance of colonies of selected meliponine species in a Costa Rican tropical wet forest. J. Trop. Ecol. 15: 765-777 [768, 769, 770, 771, 772, 774, 775] (geographic record, non-floral baits, carrion, honey, nestmate recognition, frequency, nest distribution)
Bullock, S. H., Martínez del Rio, C. & Ayala, R. (1989). Bee visitation rates to trees of Prockia crucis differing in flower number. Oecologia (Berl.) 78: 389-393 [391, 392] (as Trigona frontalis, flower record: Prockia crucis (Flacourtiaceae), pollen foraging behavior)
Cano, R. J., Poinar, H. N., Roubik, D. W. & Poinar Jr., G. O. (1992). Enzymatic amplification and nucleotide sequencing of portions of the 18s rRNA gene of the bee Proplebeia dominicana (Apidae: Hymenoptera) isolated from 25-40 million year old Dominican amber. Medical Science Research 20: 619-622 [619, 620, 621] (molecular analysis, source of DNA: Bacillus pumillus)
Cockerell, T. D. A (1912). New bees from Brazil. Psyche 19: 41-61 [50] (as Trigona frontalis, note on type locality)
Cockerell, T. D. A (1913). Meliponine bees from Central America. Psyche 20 (1): 10-14 [11] (as Trigona frontalis, geographic record, taxonomic character)
Cockerell, T. D. A (1914). Bees from Ecuador and Peru. J. N. Y. Entomol. Soc. 22: 306-328 [309] (? uncertain identity, as Trigona frontalis, geographic record)
Cockerell, T. D. A (1917). New social bees. Psyche 24: 120-128 [126] (as Trigona frontalis, comparative notes)
Cockerell, T. D. A (1920). Some neotropical meliponid bees. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 42: 459-468 [462] (as Trigona frontalis, geographic records)
Cockerell, T. D. A (1949). Bees from Central America, principally Honduras. Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus. 98: 429-490 [489] (as Trigona (Plebeia) mosquito frontalis, geographic record, diagnosis)
Cornaby, B. W. (1974). Carrion reduction by animals in contrasting tropical habitats. Biotropica 6 (1): 51-63 [61] (as Trigona (Plebeia) frontalis, geographic record, list, foraging behavior, carrion visiting: lizard)
Crane, E. (1999). The world history of beekeeping and honey hunting. New York: Routledge xxii+682 pp. [82] (as Trigona frontalis, geographic record, honey hunting, citation)
Darchen, R. & Louis, J. (1961). Les mélipones et leur élevage Melipona - Trigona - Lestremelitta [sic]. Annales de L’Abeille 4 (I): 5-39 [7] (as Trigona Plebeia [sic] frontalis, nest entrance)
Drumond, P. M., Bego, L. R. & Melo, G. A. R. (1995). Nest architecture of the stingless bee Plebeia poecilochroa Moure & Camargo, 1993 and related considerations (Hymenoptera, Apidae, Meliponinae). Iheringia, Sér. Zool. 79: 39-45 [39] (list)
Ducke, A. (1916). Enumeração dos Hymenopteros colligidos pela Comissão e Revisão das espécies de abelhas do Brasil. Comm. Lin. Teleg. Estr. M. Gr. ao Amazonas 35: 3-171 [95] (as Melipona mosquito, partim, synonymy)
Ducke, A. (1925). Die stachellosen Bienen (Melipona) Brasiliens, Nach morphologischen und ethologischen Merkmalen geordnet. Zool. Jahrb. Abt. Syst. Geogr. Biol. Tiere 49: 335-448 [395] (as Melipona mosquito, partim, synonymy)
Griswold, T., Parker, F. D. & Hanson, P. E. (1995). The bees (Apidae) pp. 650-691 in Hanson, P. E. & Gauld, I. D. (ed.) The Hymenoptera of Costa Rica. London: Natural History Museum 893 pp. [684, 690] (as Plebeia (Plebeia) frontalis, nesting site: tree, nest characteristics, list)
Hart, A. G. & Ratnieks, F. L. W. (2002). Task-partitioned nectar transfer in stingless bees: work organisation in a phylogenetic context. Ecol. Entomol. 27: 163-168 [165, 166] (behavior, nectar transfer, nestmates)
Heithaus, E. R. (1979). Flower visitation records and resource overlap of bees and wasps in northwest Costa Rica. Brenesia 16: 9-52 [16, 30, 32, 41] (as Trigona (Plebia) [sic] frontalis, geographic record, habitat, trophic niche, flower records: Casearia sp., Prockia crucis (Flacourtiaceae), Mimosa sp., Acatia collinsii (Mimosaceae), Verbesina myriocephala, Melanthera aspera, Chrysanthemun intergrifolium [sic?] (Compositae), Sida acuta, S. glomerata, Malachara alceifolia (Malvaceae), Maragaritaria mobilis (Euphorbiaceae), Cupania guatemalensis (Ericaceae), Paspalum corypheum, Panicum fasciculatum (Gramineae), Spondias purpurea, S. mombin (Anacardiaceae), Callicophyllum candidissimum (Rubiaceae), Ipomoea umbraticola (Convolvulaceae), Hirtella racemosa (Rosaceae), Sterculiaceae [?], Stachytarpheta jamaicensis (Verbenaceae), Cordia pringlei, C. inermis (Boraginaceae), Allophyllus occidentalis (Sapindaceae), Luehea candida (Tilliaceae), Kohleria spricata (Gesneriaceae), Piper marginatum (Piperaceae), Bixa orellana (Bixaceae), Bauhinia ungulata (Caesalpinaceae), Danaea humilia (Danaeaceae), Turnera ulmifolia (Turneraceae))
Hubbell, S. P. & Johnson, L. K. (1977). Competition and nest spacing in a tropical stingless bee community. Ecology 58: 949-963 [949, 950, 951, 952, 953, 954, 956, 957, 959, 960, 962, 963] (as Trigona frontalis, geographic record, nest density, estimated colony size, nesting sites: Ficus goldmanii, Lonchocarpus, Chlorophora, Dalbergia, Quercus, Sweetia, Bursera, Casearia, Astronium, Enterolobium, Guazuma, raid: Lestrimelitta limao [probably = Lestrimelitta mourei Oliveira & Marchi or L. danunciae Oliveira & Marchi], colony spacing, colony persistence)
Hubbell, S. P. & Johnson, L. K. (1978). Comparative foraging behavior of six stingless bee species exploiting a standardized resource. Ecology 59 (6): 1123-1136 [1125, 1126, 1127, 1128, 1129, 1130, 1131, 1133, 1134] (as Trigona (Plebeia) frontalis, geographic record, sucrose solution bait, foraging behavior, communication, recruitment, odor)
Lutz, F. E. (1924). Some characters of American Meliponidae pp. 202-232 in Lutz, F. E. Apparently non-selective characters and combinations of characters, including a study of ultraviolet in relation to the flower visiting habits of insects. Ann. N. Y. Acad. Sci. 29: 181–283 [206, 210, 214, 220] (as Trigona frontalis, taxonomic characters, glossa, mandible, tibia, labial palpi)
Lutz, F. E. & Cockerell, T. D. A (1920). Notes on distribution and bibliography of North American bees of the families Apidae, Meliponidae, Bombidae, Euglossidae, and Anthophoridae. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 42: 491-641 [497] (geographic records, citation)
Meléndez-Ramirez, V., Magaña-Rueda, S., Parra-Tabla, V., Ayala, R., & Navarro, J. (2002). Diversity of native bee visitors of cucurbit crops (Cucurbitaceae) in Yucatán, México. J. Insect Conservation 6: 135-147 [145] (flower record: Citrillus lanatus (Cucurbitaceae))
Melo, G. A. R. (2003). Notas sobre meliponíneos neotropicais, com a descrição de três novas espécies (Hymenoptera, Apidae) pp. 85-91 in Melo, G. A. R. & Alves-dos-Santos, I. (ed.) Apoidea Neotropica: Homenagem aos 90 anos de Jesus Santiago Moure. Criciúma: Editora UNESC 320 pp. [88] (comparative notes)
Mercado, N. K. (1968). Contribución al conocimiento de las abejas indígenas (Meloponidae) [sic] de departamento de Santa Cruz. La Paz: Editorial Don Bosco 1-7 pp. [6] (? uncertain identity, as Trigona (Plebeia) mosquito frontalis [error, does not occur in Santa Cruz, Bolívia], folk name: "boca de vieja", geographic record)
Michener, C. D. (1954). Bees of Panamá. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 104 (1): 5-175 [169] (as Trigona (Plebeia) frontalis, partim, synonymy [error], geographic record)
Michener, C. D. (1982). A new interpretation of fossil social bees from the Dominican Republic. Sociobiology 7 (1): 37-45 [42] (as Trigona frontalis, comparative notes)
Michener, C. D. (1990). Classification of the Apidae (Hymenoptera). Univ. Kansas Sci. Bull. 54 (4): 75-164 [95, 100, 105, 111, 113, 136, 146] (as Plebeia (Plebeia) frontalis, figures: sting, labial palpi, thorax, male genitalia, wings, tibia, list)
Michener, C. D. (2000). The bees of the World. Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press 913 pp. [49, 649, 789, 780] (as Plebeia (Plebeia) frontalis, figures: hind tibia and basitarsus, wings)
Michener, C. D. & Brooks, R. W. (1984). Comparative study of the glossae of bees (Apoidea). Contrib. Amer. Ent. Inst. 22 (1): 1-73 [63] (as Trigona frontalis, list, morphology, glossa)
Michener, C. D. & Roubik, D. W. (1993). Observations on the labium of meliponine bees (Hymenoptera: Apidae) pp. 251-265 in Inoue, T. & Yamane, S. (ed.) Evolution of insect societies: Comparative sociology of bees, wasps and ants. Tokyo: Hakuhin-sha Publishing Co. [255, 257] (as Plebeia (PLebeia) frontalis, morphology, labial palpi, figure)
Nates-Parra, G. (2001). Las abejas sin aguijón (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponini) de Colombia. Biota Colombiana 2 (3): 233-248 [239, 247] (? uncertain identity, as Plebeia (Plebeia) frontalis, geographic range, altitudinal records, list)
Pereboom, J. J. M. & Biesmeijer, J. C. (2003). Thermal constraints for stingless bee foragers: the importance of body size and coloration. Oecologia (Berl.) 137: 42-50 [43, 44] (body size, body color, thermal characteristics, phylogeny, citation)
Rincón, M., Roubik, D. W., Finegan, B., Delgado, D., Zamora, N. (2000). Understory bees and floral resources in logged and silviculturally treated Costa Rican rainforest plots. J. Kansas Entomol. Soc. 72 (4): 379-393 [384, 385] (managed forest, relative abundance)
Roubik, D. W. (1983). Nest and colony characteristics of stingless bees from Panamá (Hymenoptera: Apidae). J. Kansas Entomol. Soc. 53 (6): 327-355 [330, 334, 338, 346-347, 352] (as Trigona (Plebeia) frontalis, nest entrance, nesting site: tree cavity, geographic record, nest characteristics, nest population, honey, pollen, nest density)
Roubik, D. W. (1992). Stingless Bees: A guide to Panamanian and Mesoamerican species and their nests (Hymenoptera: Apidae: Meliponinae) pp. 495-524 in Quintero, D. & A. Aiello (ed.) Insects of Panama and Mesoamerica. Selected Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press 692 pp. [499, 501, 511, 514, 523] (figures: hind tibia, key, synonymy [!], geographic range [partim], diagnosis, notes on paratypes, nesting site: tree, nest entrance, resin, defense behavior, folk name: "mimí")
Roubik, D. W. (1993). Direct costs of forest reproduction, bee-cycling and the efficiency of pollination modes. Journal of Biosciences 18 (4): 537-553 [549] (geographic range, nest density)
Roubik, D. W. (2000). The de-flowering of Central America: a current perspective pp. 144-151 in International Bee Research Association (ed.) Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Apiculture in Tropical Climates. Cardiff: IBRA [146] (list, geographic range)
Roubik, D. W., Enrique Moreno, J., Vergara, C. & Wittmann, D. (1986). Sporadic food competition with the African honey bee: projected impact on neotropical social bees. J. Trop. Ecol. 2: 97-111 [99, 101, 105] (as Trigona (Plebeia) frontalis, foraging activity, competition, pollen, nectar)
Roubik, D. W. & Wolda, H. (2000). Male and female bee dynamics in a lowland tropical forest pp. 167-174 in International Bee Research Association (ed.) Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Apiculture in Tropical Climates. Cardiff: IBRA [168, 169, 171] (light traps, geographic record, male relative abundance)
Sakagami, S. F., Roubik, D. W. & Zucchi, R. (1993). Ethology of the robber stingless bee, Lestrimelitta limao (Hymenoptera: Apidae). Sociobiology 21 (2): 237-277 [243] (colony not raided by Lestrimelitta)
Salt, G. (1929). A contribution to the ethology of the Meliponinae. Trans. Entomol. Soc. Lond. 77 (2): 431-470 [462] (as Trigona frontalis, inquiline: Trigona townsendi [?], geographic record)
Schwarz, H. F. (1948). Stingless bees (Meliponidae) of the Western Hemisphere. Bull. Am. Mus. Nat. Hist. 90: xvii+546 [20, 28] (as Trigona (Plebeia) frontalis, nesting site: wood pillar, nest characteristics, behavior, nest population, citation)
Schwarz, H. F. (1949). The stingless bees (Meliponidae) of Mexico. An. Inst. Biol. Mex. 20 (1,2): 357-370 [363, 369] (as Trigona (Plebeia) mosquito frontalis, list, geographic records, key)
Slaa, E. J., J. Wassenberg & J. C. Biesmeijer (2003). The use of field-based social information in eusocial foragers: local enhancement among nestmates and heterospecifics in stingless bees. Ecol. Entomol. 28: 369-379 [371, 374] (foraging behavior, communication, nest population, recruitment, sound, interspecific interaction)
Smith-Pardo, A. H. (2003). A preliminary account of the bees of Colombia (Hymenoptera: Apoidea): present knowledge and future directions. J. Kansas Entomol. Soc. 76 (2): 335-341 [338] (? uncertain identity, as Plebeia (Plebeia) frontalis, list)
Stankiewicz, B. A., Poinar, H. N., Briggs, D. E. G., Evershed, R. P. & Poinar Jr., G. O. (1998). Chemical preservation of plants and insects in natural resins. Proc. R. Entomol. Soc. Lond. Ser. B 265: 641-647 [642] (molecular analysis, tissue preservation)
Vergara, C. & R. Ayala (2002). Diversity, phenology and biogeography of the bees (Hymenoptera: Apoidea) of Zapotitlan de las Salinas, Puebla, Mexico. J. Kansas Entomol. Soc. 75 (1): 16-30 [27] (as Plebeia (Plebeia) frontalis, list, geographic record)
Walden, K. K. O. & Robertson, H. M. (1997). Ancient DNA from Amber fossil bees. Mol. Biol. Evol. 14 (10): 1075-1077 [1075, 1076] (molecular analysis, DNA)
Wheeler, W. M. (1913). Notes on the habits of some Central American stingless bees. Psyche 20 (1): 1-9 [4-5] (as Trigona frontalis, geographic record, nesting site: wood pillars, behavior, nest entrance reconstruction)
Wille, A. (1983). Biology of the stingless bees. Ann. Rev. Entomol. 28: 41-64 [53, 60] (as Trigona (Plebeia) frontalis, nest population, citation, honey characteristics)
Wille, A. & C. D. Michener (1973). The nest architecture of stingless bees with special reference to those of Costa Rica. Rev. Biol. Trop. 21 (Suplemento 1): 1-278 [10,19,32, 42,53, 65,94, 96,101, 104-109, 112, 265,268] (as Trigona (Plebeia) frontalis, nesting site: tree cavity, slender tubular tree cavities, geographic records, habitat, nest characteristics, behavior, figures: nest, nest population, honey characteristics)
Wille, A., Orozco, E. & Raabe, C. (1983). Polinización del chayote Sechium edule (Jacq.) Swartz en Costa Rica. Revista de Biologia Tropical 31 (1): 145-154 [146] (geographic records, pollination: Sechium edule (Cucurbitaceae))

Online since: 23 Jul 2008
Last update : 17 Jul 2023