Within the bees that exist in Brazil, those of the subfamily Meliponinae deserve special attention. These bees are popularly known as stingless bees, as their sting is atrophied. More than 200 species are known, certainly less than the number of existing species as new ones have been found.
Taxonomicaly, this subfamiliy is divided in two tribes, Meliponini with only one genus, Melipona, and Trigonini that has ten genera in the Neotropical Region and six in other regions.
All the stingless bees are eusocial and present a great variety of morphology and habits. While the bees of the genus Melipona have a size similar to the size of Apis mellifera, some Trigonini are the smallest bees ever known as, for example, the genus Trigonisca.The size of the colony also varies very much: some species have colonies with a few hundred individual and others, as Arapuá (Trigona spinipes), have 180.000 individual in one colony.
Excepting Iratim (Lestrimellita spp), these bees carry polen and nectar hte same way that Apis mellifera does. Lestrimellita spp. do not collect the food in the flower as they steal it from another species detroying their nests. They carry the polen in the crop. Some species of Trigona do not collect polen and they get all their protein from the flesh of dead animals, collecting it and storing in thier nest.