Stingless bees form perennial colonies of honey-making insects. The >600 species of stingless bees, mainly Neotropical, live throughout tropical latitudes. Foragers influence floral biology, plant reproduction, microbe dispersal, and diverse ecosystem functions. As tropical forest residents since the upper Cretaceous, they have had a long evolutionary history without competition from honey bees. Most stingless bees are smaller than any Apis species and recruit nest mates to resources, while their defense strategies exclude stinging behavior but incorporate biting. Stingless bees have diversified ecologically; excel in nesting site selection and mutualisms with plants, arthropods, and microbes; and display opportunism, including co-opting plant defenses. As their biology becomes better known, applications to human endeavors are imposing selective pressures from exploitation and approaches to conservation that entail colony extraction from wildlands. Although some meliponines can adjust to new conditions, their populations shall require tropical diversity for survival and reproduction.

中文翻译：

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无刺蜂（蜜蜂科：Apinae：Meliponini）生态学

无刺蜜蜂形成常年产蜜昆虫的群体。超过 600 种无刺蜜蜂，主要是新热带蜜蜂，生活在整个热带纬度地区。觅食者影响花卉生物学、植物繁殖、微生物传播和多种生态系统功能。自上白垩世以来，它们就作为热带森林居民，有着悠久的进化历史，没有受到蜜蜂的竞争。大多数无刺蜜蜂比任何蜜蜂物种都小，它们会招募巢友来获取资源，而它们的防御策略排除螫刺行为，但包括咬伤。无刺蜜蜂已经实现了生态多样化；擅长筑巢地点选择以及与植物、节肢动物和微生物的共生；并表现出机会主义，包括选择植物防御。随着它们的生物学特性越来越为人所知，人类活动的应用正在对开发和保护方法施加选择性压力，这些方法需要从荒地中提取殖民地。尽管一些蜜脂蜜可以适应新的条件，但它们的种群需要热带多样性才能生存和繁殖。